Gold smuggling: Court to hear Sivasankar’s bail plea on Jan 19

KOCHI: The Special Court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases on Tuesday adjourned the petition filed by former principal secretary M Sivasankar seeking statutory bail in the case registered by Enforcement Directorate (ED) related to gold smuggling incident. The court, following the request of Sivasankar’s counsel, decided to hear the petition on next Tuesday. Sivasankar approached the court claiming that ED filed a chargesheet against him without obtaining a prosecution sanction from the state government. Hence, he is eligible to get a statutory bail in the case.

Judicial custody extended
Kochi: The Additional Chief Judicial (Economic Offences) Court on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of M Sivasankar and six others — Sarith P S, Swapna Suresh, Sandeep Nair, Rameez K T, Jalal A M and Muhammad Shafi, accused in the gold smuggling case, for 14 days. The court examined them via Google Meet. Apart from Sivasankar, the other six persons had received bail in the case, but could not execute it after they were detained under COFEPOSA.