Khushi Bajpai
Published on: 25th July 2022 at 17:40 IST
M Sivasankar, a former principal secretary to the Chief Minister of Kerala and an accused in a money laundering case involving the smuggling of gold through the UAE consulate in 2020, has petitioned the Supreme Court to object to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) attempt to move the case from Kerala to Bengaluru.
The top bureaucrat pleaded with the court not to decide on the ED petition to remand the matter without giving him a full hearing. He claimed that the action was politically motivated and that it was improper to transfer the case to a different state after the charge sheet had been filed. The state legislature has not yet made a judgement on this.
Last Monday, the ED filed a petition with the Supreme Court alleging purposeful attempts to undermine the case. They referenced the Kerala police case against ED officers and a judicial commision against the central organisation.
According to the agency’s petition, “there has been a deliberate effort at the request of respondent No 4 to impede and derail the investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) due to involvement of prominent persons from the very beginning.”
The fourth defendant in the PMLA case involving the gold smuggling case filed in 2020 is Sivasankar.
On July 5, 2020, customs officers discovered 30 kg of gold concealed in bathroom fixtures in one of the consignments that had been passed off as diplomatic luggage and arrived in the name of the UAE consulate in the state capital.
P S Sarith, a former employee of the consulate who came to receive the shipment, was detained that day. After one week, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) detained Swapna and her sidekick Sandeep Nair at their Bengaluru hiding place.
The administration suspended Sivasankar after allegations of a relationship with Suresh surfaced, and three months later, he was detained by federal authorities. After being freed, the former bureaucrat’s suspension was lifted, and in January of this year, he was reinstated into the government.