Gold smuggling:ED opposes Sivasankar's anticipatory bail plea

The Enforcement Directorate, probing the money trail in the gold smuggling case, on Wednesday opposed suspended IAS officer M Sivasankar's anticipatory bail plea in the High Court, submitting that he appears to be connected with the serious economic offence allegedly committed by prime accused in the case, Swapna Suresh. The Court on October 15 restrained the Enforcement Directorate from arresting Sivasankar, former principal secretary to the Chief Minister,till October 23.

In its submission, the ED alleged that the officer was "very close" to Suresh, a former UAE consulate employee, and would be sending WhatsApp messages to her throughout the day. According to the ED, the chats show that Suresh discussed everything with him and as such, it is highly unlikely that he was not aware of the money she was making through gold smuggling and also by way of commission kickbacks in the consulate contracts.

It is submitted that the present aspects are subject matter of investigation and several facts are coming to light, the agency said in its submission. Referring to the seizure of huge amounts of money from bank lockers maintained by Suresh by the NIA, the ED alleged that Sivasankar had facilitated opening of the bank lockers by Suresh jointly with his chartered accountant P Venugopal with SBI, Thiruvananthapuram branch.

Submitting that all the money belonging to Suresh represents Proceeds of Crime (PoC) as defined under Section 2(1)(u) of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the ED alleged that PoC was generated by Suresh and therefore requires investigation into the serious economic offence in which Sivasankar appears to be connected. This is a case where custodial interrogation may be required at an appropriate stage depending upon the investigations made, the ED said.

In his plea seeking anticipatory bail, Sivasankar has said as a responsible government servant, he had extended maximum cooperation in the investigation of the offence. He expressed fears that the media's "false propaganda" and frivolous news items" and constant demand for his arrest for creating news value has created a situation where the investigating agencies are forced to "save their skin" from allegations by arresting him, thereby playing to the fourth estate and avoiding criticism.

Sivasankar was earlier interrogated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate probing separate cases related to the gold smuggling using diplomatic channels through the international airport at Thiruvananthapuram.PTI COR TGB BN WELCOME BN WELCOME.