On Thursday, the Kerala High Court directed the Enforcement Directorate not to arrest the former Principal Secretary for Kerala Chief Minister’s office, M Sivasankar IAS, till 23rd October in a gold smuggling case.
The bench headed by Justice Ashok Menon considered the anticipatory bail plea filed by Senior Advocate P Vijayabhanu on behalf of Sivasankar and passed the interim order directing ED not to arrest him till 23rd October. The counsel for the applicant submitted that Sivasankar was willing to appear before the agency and to cooperate with the investigation in a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for alleged gold smuggling through a diplomatic channel.
Earlier, on Wednesday, Sivasankar filed a plea in the High Court seeking anticipatory bail while citing that as a responsible government servant, he cooperated maximum with the investigation in relation to the offense. He further mentioned that he was summoned by the ED on multiple occasions to confront the statements given by different accused and different witnesses.
In his petition, Sivasankar said that he apprehended his illegal arrest on the basis of an ED charge sheet under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. He further added that although he was questioned for more than 90 hours by different agencies, no incriminating materials could be gathered by them to implicate him in the alleged crime, as was evident from the fact that he had not been arraigned as an accused in the final report already filed.
