Gold smuggling case: NIA questions Kerala CM's former secretary M Sivasankar for third time

Kerala Chief Minster's former principal secretary M Sivasankar was quizzed for the third time by the NIA on Thursday in connection with his links with the gold smuggling case accused.

Sivasankar reached the NIA office in Kochi by Thursday morning and his quizzing was over by late in the evening. Gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh, who is a former executive secretary at the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, was also under NIA custody.

It was learnt that the IAS officer under suspension was quizzed for the third time to seek further clarifications pertaining to his association with Swapna as NIA recovered certain additional pieces of evidence from Swapna's laptop.

Apart from NIA, the Customs had also quizzed Sivasankar earlier. He had admitted his close relationship with the smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh but maintained that he was unaware of her smuggling activities. Customs' sources said that there was no evidence of his involvement in smuggling. But he seems to be aware of financial dealings of Swapna, including the commission she received in a UAE agency funded housing scheme for the homeless in Kerala.

The nexus of Sivasankar with gold smuggling accused had caused much embarrassment to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as Sivasankar had been serving as his secretary over the last four days. Sivasankar was removed from CM's office and later suspended after his nexus with the smuggling accused surfaced.