Order on Sivasankar’s bail plea today

The Economic Offences Court, Ernakulam, will pronounce its decision on the bail application of M. Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, in the diplomatic channel gold smuggling case on Wednesday.

As the case came up for hearing before judicial officer S. Deepu, counsel for the former bureaucrat contended that the Customs could not come up with any evidence to prove his culpability.

There was nothing on record to prove the involvement of the accused. The Customs could not produce any detail on how the accused allegedly aided or abetted the other accused or his modus operandi. All that the Customs could produce on record were the statements issued by some of the co-accused who were in custody for long, argued S. Rajeev, counsel for the accused.

The accused needed to know the offences charged against him to defend his case. He also needed to know why he had been incarcerated, he submitted.

He also pointed out that all the other accused in the case had been given statutory bail by the court.

His travel to UAE

Opposing the bail application, senior lawyer S. Ramkumar, who appeared for the Customs, contended that Mr. Sivasankar had travelled to the UAE seven times in the company of the key accused in the case.

The expenses of the official, including his stay in the foreign country in luxury hotels, were met by the co-accused. The purpose of the repeated visits to the UAE needed to be probed, he said.