Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's former principal secretary M Sivasankar got bail in all the three cases registered against him by the Customs and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
While he earlier got bail in the case registered by the ED in connection with money laundering and the gold smuggling case of Customs, on Wednesday he got bail in a second case registered by the Customs in connection with the dollar smuggling case. The Customs accused him of helping smuggle dollars worth Rs 1.3 crore.
The additional chief judicial magistrate court for economic offences granted the bail.
Sivasankar was arrested in October last year and was in remand for close to 100 days. Sivasankar came under probe owing to his close links with gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh who was a former employee of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram. The Opposition parties Congress and BJP were even raising allegations against the Chief Minister in this connection.
The ED has already filed a charge sheet against Sivasankar accusing him as the key person of the racket.
Though the NIA also launched a probe against gold smuggling accused, Sivasankar was not arraigned in the case.
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