The government on Tuesday removed M. Sivasankar from the post of Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He has also ceased to be Principal Secretary, IT. K. Muhammad Y. Safirulla has replaced him in both the key posts.

“I have applied for leave for a year,” Mr. Sivasankar told The Hindu.

The bureaucrat had arguably come under a cloud after the Opposition attempted to associate him and, by extension, the CM’s Office with gold smuggling case suspect Swapna Suresh.

Mr. Sivasankar was also at the centre of the government’s controversial decision to engage a U.S.-based data analytics firm to process the private medical information of citizens to predict how the COVID-19 pandemic would behave in Kerala.

Street protests

Mr. Sivasankar’s removal came close on the heels of the Congress and the Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing the CMO of having played host to anti-national elements.

They organised street protests across Kerala and burnt Mr. Vijayan and Ms. Suresh in effigies as a mark of protest.

The photographs and videos of Ms. Suresh socialising with top ruling front politicians, bureaucrats and ranking officials went viral on social media, putting the government on the back foot.

Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala accused Mr. Vijayan of having made Mr. Sivasankar a scapegoat by laying the blame for the alleged attempt to extricate Ms. Suresh from the smuggling case at his Secretary’s doorstep. Mr. Chennithala has petitioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

He said the Congress would organise protests at the booth level on July 8 to highlight the government’s alleged attempt to shield gold smugglers.

Person of interest

The Customs Department had named Ms. Suresh a “suspect and person of interest” in the case relating to the seizure of 30 kg of contraband gold from an air shipment addressed to the UAE consulate here on Sunday.

She was an employee of the consulate until the government appointed her as marketing liaison officer of the Space Park project under the IT Department’s Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited. The government terminated her services as a contract employee after the controversy broke.