ED to quiz suspended IAS officer in gold smuggling case

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 14 Even as the Congress kept the pressure on the Kerala government in the gold smuggling case, now-suspended IAS officer M Sivasankar is likely to be questioned by the Enforcement Directorate.

The Enforcement Directorate officials have made their intentions clear that they will soon call Sivasankar a former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and also holding charge of the Information Technology Department for questioning in the wake of quizzing of Swapna Suresh.

The National Investigation Agency and the Customs have already quizzed the officer in the past.

The case first surfaced when PS Sarith, a former employee of the UAE consulate here, was arrested by the Customs Department on July 5 when he was allegedly facilitating the smuggling of 30 kg gold in a diplomatic baggage from Dubai to Thiruvananthapuram. Swapna is one of the accused arrested in the case.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his government cannot wash hands off the gold smuggling through diplomatic baggage.

"According to the rules, the UAE Consulate has to get sanction from the state government, in which the Chief Protocol officer is the signatory. The state government has to make public all the details whether such permission has been given or not whenever such baggage has arrived here. Vijayan cannot wash his hands off this case," the Congress leader told the media.

Chennithala's statement comes after the Customs inquiry found that similar baggage had arrived 23 times in the past.

"The NIA had visited the state Secretariat for the second time to question the Protocol officer and hence things are very grave," Chennithala added.

( With inputs from IANS )