Thiruvananthapuram: Senior IAS officer M Sivasankar was grilled by the Customs for nearly nine hours in the gold smuggling case here Wednesday. On the other hand the opposition Congress and BJP stepped up Wednesday their attack on the Left front government and demanded M Sivasankar’s suspension.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan maintained that a high-level official probe was looking into allegations against Sivasankar. He reiterated that his government would not protect any wrongdoer in the sensational case, also being investigated by the NIA.
The bureaucrat, who has gone on one year leave after being eased out of his positions in the government, appeared before the Customs officials around 5.15 pm Tuesday shortly after being summoned in connection with the investigation.
The marathon questioning of Sivasankar continued till 2.15am Wednesday after which he was escorted back to his home by the Customs officials.
Sivasankar was removed from his posts after allegations surfaced that he had links with Swapna Suresh, the prime accused in the case related to the attempt to smuggle gold through diplomatic baggage using the name of a person in the UAE consulate here.
As speculations were rife that the officer would be suspended following his questioning, Vijayan told reporters here that the top most official of the Kerala government (the Chief Secretary) was investigating the allegations against Sivasankar and action will be taken as per the probe report, to be filed soon.
