[Kerala Gold Smuggling] Police, State govt trying to intimidate Enforcement Directorate: Plea in SC seeks cancellation of M Sivasankar's bail

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has moved an application seeking the cancellation of bail granted earlier to Kerala Chief Minister's former principal secretary, M Sivasankar in the gold smuggling case, on allegations that he has been influencing others accused to derail the ED's probe with the State's help. .The ED had already moved a Special Leave Petition challenging, on merits, the January 25 order of the Kerala High Court whereby bail was granted to Sivasankar. The Supreme Court had issued notice on that SLP..The latest application before the top court alleges that there have been supervening and subsequent circumstances to be brought to the Court's notice, particularly of influence being allegedly exerted by Sivasankar to hamper the ED's probe. .It has been submitted that after he was released on bail, Sivasankar has been influencing other accused and using the State machinery to fabricate false evidence against the investigating officer and the ED itself. .In focus are statements made by two police officers who were allegedly on duty to guard Swapna Suresh, a prime accused in the gold smuggling case, between August 5-17, 2020. The police officers are alleged to have stated that Suresh was pressurised by the ED to name Kerala's Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan in the gold smuggling case. The statements were submitted during an enquiry conducted into the leakage of audio allegedly containing the voice of Suresh. .These alleged statements of the two police constables were leaked to the media on March 8 and March 9, the ED recounts, "whereas Suresh did not make any such allegation of pressurising her to name the Chief Minster of Kerala or any other person.".On March 12, another accused who is in judicial custody, Sandeep Nair, made a petition before the Sessions Court alleging that he was harassed by the ED's investigating officer while in ED custody between August 5-17. Nair is also stated to have alleged that he was pressurised to name the Chief Minister of Kerala and three other Ministers in the gold smuggling case..Further, Nair has alleged that while in judicial custody, the ED's investigating officer visited him in jail under the cover of interrogation and asked him to make certain statements against Ministers and companies that he had "never heard of.".While refuting these allegations as false, the ED has told the Supreme Court in its application that the State police is also intimidating the agency, including by filing a case against the Directorate and the investigation officer. .“These are cooked up stories to tarnish the image of the Investigating Agency and to sabotage the ongoing investigation with the help of highly influential accused and other persons. The City Civil Police Officers are intimidating the IO by giving false statements and the State Government too is giving statements that it is going to register a case against the Directorate as well as IO leading to an unprecedented situation where implementation of a rule of law would be highly difficult", states the application..In view of these, the ED has sought cancellation of bail granted to Sivasankar. In the alternative, the investigating agency has sought liberty to move the Kerala High Court seeking cancellation of Sivasankar's bail.