Kerala: Court clears arrest of Sivasankar in dollar smuggling case

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 21 The Special Economic Offences court in Kerala has given sanction to the Customs department to arrest M. Sivasankar in the dollar smuggling case. Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is now in judicial custody in the gold smuggling case and other cases filed by the Enforcement Directorate.

Sivasankar is the fourth accused in the dollar smuggling case to be charged by the Customs.

The Customs has decided to arraign Sivasankar after detailed investigation on the statements given by the first and second accused in the case, Swapna Prabha Suresh and P.S. Sarith. Customs had also interrogated Kiran who is under suspicion for having smuggled dollars to UAE through hawala route. Kiran is managing educational institutions in Dubai and there have been allegations that the Speaker of the Kerala Assembly P. Sreeramakrishnan supported Kiran in investing in the franchisees of an international educational institution.

Swapna and Sarith had deposed before the Customs that two persons Kiran and Lafeer Mohammed had accepted the dollars smuggled to UAE by certain people who are in higher positions in the state. The other accused in the dollar smuggling case is the former finance head of the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, Khalid Ali Shoukri.

( With inputs from IANS )