Previous Principal secretary to the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, M. Sivasankar, brushed past a phalanx of television cam individuals and news reporters in front of his home in Thiruvananthapuram early on Monday, climbed into a car and headed to Kochi where the National Investigation Firm (NIA) seemed primed to question him for the 2nd time in connection with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Consulate-linked gold smuggling case.
A motorcade of tv camera groups trailed Mr. Sivasankar’s lorry and broadcast the officer’s development live.
Mr. Sivasankar’s upcoming appearance before the NIA at 11 a.m. set off prevalent speculation that the firm may arrest him, a relocation that might bring the high-profile investigation embarrassingly near the Chief Minister’s Workplace (CMO). The company has supposedly sought surveillance video-footage of Mr. Sivasankar’s days in office in the run-up to the criminal activity.
Mr. Sivasankar was widely considered as the face of the CMO for many years. He came under a cloud after the NIA and the Customs questioned him for hours recently in connection with the smuggling of gold in air cargo consignments resolved to the UAE Consulate here.
The bureaucrat’s supposed association with some of the accused in the event had, arguably, authored his fall from grace.
Mr.Vijayan had suspended him from service pending enquiry on July 15 after the debate over his continuation in office ended up being a political hot potato for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.
Janayugam, the paper of the Communist Party of India (CPI), had specifically firmly insisted that the CMO shoul