Former Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary M Sivasankar, who was arrested in a money laundering case related to gold smuggling, has a negative test result. Shivshankar underwent a Covid test before being produced in court. Shivashankar, who was arrested yesterday, was produced in the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court. The judge arrived at the office despite it being a holiday.
Shivshankar did not eat breakfast in the morning, officials said. On examination, Shivashankar did not find any health problems. The ED move is to seek a week of custody. Shivshankar did not respond to media queries outside the ED office. The main question asked by the media was whether the customs officials were called to release the luggage.
According to the arrest memo of the Enforcement Directorate, Shivshankar had called the customs officials to release the diplomatic luggage that had brought the gold. The arrest memo states that Shivashankar admitted this. Shivshankar had earlier said that he had not interfered in the release of the luggage. When questioned by various agencies, Shivshankar said that he had asked Sapna to intervene but was told that he would be released after completing the legal process. Such was the statement of the dream. However, Shiv Shankar admitted that he had called the customs officials, according to the ED arrest memo. The ED had also raised the issue in the high court opposing Shivshankar’s anticipatory bail plea. But Customs did not make such an argument during the argument.
According to the arrest memo, Sivashankar was in control of Swapna’s financial dealings. This was done through a chartered accountant. It is doubtful whether Lord Shiva also received the black money. According to the ED, Shivshankar had given misleading information during interrogation. Shivshankar abused his official position to help the gold smuggling gang. According to the ED memo, Shivshankar was involved in gold smuggling several times.
