M Sivasankar, the former Principal Secretary to Kerala State Chief Pinarayi Vijayan was formally taken into custody on Wednesday from an ayurveda hospital in Kerala's capital city, Thiruvananthapuram, in connection with a gold-smuggling case. The development came just as the Kerala High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea.
The ED along with the Customs Department was battling against Sivasankar’s bail, saying that he played an important role in the illegal money-laundering part of the gold-smuggling racket.
Citing previous rounds of investigations, Sivasankar has claimed that none of the probing agencies have been able to unearth any evidence against him even after interrogations, some lasting 90 hours.
Earlier, P Sarith Kumar, a former public relations officer of the UAE consulate who came to receive the luggage was also arrested. Five days later, two more suspects Swapna Suresh and Sandip Nair were also nabbed from their hideout in Bangalore, Karnataka state.
