Kerala CMO team, Sivasankar were aware of gold smuggling racket

Kochi, Nov 12: The Enforcement Directorate has told a court that M Sivashankar, former principal secretary to Kerala Chief Minister and his team in the CMO were aware of the gold smuggling.

Meanwhile the special court has extended the custody of Sivashankar by a day. His bail petition will come up for hearing today. The ED further submitted that prime accused, Swapna Suresh when confronted with the WhatsApp exchanges had stated that Sivashankar and his team in the CMO were aware of the smuggling of gold.

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Swapna in her statement had said that an amount of Rs 1 crore was given to her by consulate employee Khaleed Muhammad Ali as kickback meant for Sivasankar. The NIA it may be recalled had sexier this amount from Swapna's bank lockers, including the one opened on the directive of Sivasankar from which Rs 64 lakh was seized.

Sivashankar had shared confidential information related to KFON and Life Mission Projects with Swapna. There could have been kickbacks from certain private parties in these projects as well, the ED further said.