[Gold Smuggling Case] Suspended Personal Secretary to Kerala CM, M Sivasankar moves Kerala High Court for bail

M Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Kerala, has approached the Kerala High Court for bail. Sivasankar is presently facing investigation for his alleged involvement in smuggling of gold through diplomatic channels..The former bureaucrat was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on October 28, within hours of the Kerala High Court dismissing his anticipatory bail application..[Breaking] Kerala Gold Smuggling Case: Kerala High Court dismisses Sivasankar's Anticipatory Bail Applications.He has maintained his innocence, stating that he knew one of the accused Swapna Suresh from his interactions with her in his capacity as a bureaucrat. Swapna Suresh is a former employee of the UAE Consulate at Thiruvananthapuram..The accused in the gold smuggling case, Swapna Suresh, PS Sarith, and Sandeep Nair are being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), ED and Customs.Upon interrogation of Swapna Suresh by the ED, a bank locker operated jointly by the Suresh and Sivasankar came to light. The ED has claimed she stated that the locker contained the proceeds from the gold smuggling. The ED has made additional allegations that Sivasankar handled Swapna’s finances and introduced her to his Chartered Accountant..The ED also informed the Special Court that a subsequent statement by Swapna Suresh revealed that joint locker housed kickbacks from Unitac Builders, one of the successful contractors in the LIFE Mission Project.According to the ED, one of Suresh' last statements that he contacted Custom officials on multiple occasions to clear baggage containing smuggled gold, implicated Sivasankar. .[LIFE Mission case] Much ado about nothing, says petitioner challenging CBI probe; "Fraud", says CBI as Kerala HC reserves orders.On November 17, a special court at Ernakulam under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) dismissed Sivasankar’s bail application finding that there were probabilities of his involvement in the gold smuggling and material existed to show that he helped Swapna Suresh launder money..In response to claims that Swapna’s custodial statements contradicted each other, the special court observed that the statements would have to be investigated more thoroughly. The court, however, stated that Sivasankar could not be let off yet, since the allegations against him were serious..In his bail application before the High Court, Sivasankar has challenged the special court’s bail order stating that it relied on Swapna’s contradictory statements, particularly her last statement..The application also assails the fact that his involvement was inferred from the fact that Sivasankar had introduced Swapna Suresh to his chartered accountant (CA), with whose help she opened a bank locker from which the agency has seized the alleged proceeds of the crime..Sivasankar has contended that he introduced the CA to Swapna Suresh in 2018, much before her involvement in gold smuggling..There was no material produced by the ED to justify its claim that Sivasankar had contacted customs officials to facilitate the release of diplomatic cargo to Swapna Suresh."The Enforcement Directorate made wild allegations and made some allegations that the petitioner tried to contact Customs official which they could not substantiate by producing any materials. Even the customs has no such case till date. Only with a frustrated attempt to substantiate the arrest of the petitioner, such an allegation was leveled by the Enforcement Directorate. The respondent heavily relied on the statement of the 2nd accused, but they failed to understand the fact that she is an accused at the time of giving the statement against the petitioner in Enforcement case", the application states..There is no material against him, the petition has stated, nor has interrogation proved fruitful..On October 28, a single bench of Justice Ashok Menon had denied him anticipatory bail stating that "there is a fair possibility that applicant knew about the involvement of Swapna Suresh in the alleged smuggling activity"