Suspended IAS officer M Sivasankar gets bail in dollar smuggling case

A court here on Wednesday granted bailto suspended IAS officer M Sivasankar in connection with thedollar smuggling case, which came to light during the probeinto the gold smuggling racket in Kerala in which he is anaccused.

The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate court (EconomicOffences) granted bail to the former Principal Secretary ofChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, after directing him tofurnish a bond of Rs 2 lakh, two sureties for the like amountand appear before the investigating officers here everyMonday.

The customs had arrested him in the dollar case onJanuary23.

Sivasankar is in judicial custody since the past 98 daysfollowing his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) andCustoms in the cases relating to the sensational goldsmuggling through diplomatic channel, money trail and dollarsmuggling.

Earlier, he was given bail in two cases and the dollarcase was the only one pending against him.

He is likely to come out of the Kakkanad sub jail here,where he is lodged, by afternoon.

The dollar case relates to alleged smuggling of USD1,90,000 (equivalent to Rs 1.30 crore) by a former financehead of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram to Muscat inOman.

Prime accused in the gold smuggling case Swapna Sureshand Sarith P S are also allegedly involved in the dollar caseand had already been arrested by the Customs.

Sivasankarwas suspended after his links to Suresh, alsoa former employee of the consulate, surfaced.

The Customs on January 8 had recorded the statement ofKerala Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan''s assistantprivate secretary in connection with the dollar smugglingcase.