Suspended IAS officer M Sivasankar gets bail in dollar

A court in Kerala on Wednesday grantedbail to suspended IAS officer M Sivasankarin the dollarsmuggling case, observing that the offence against him was''serious'' in nature and ''required intensive probe''.

Sivasankar, the former Principal secretary of ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan, was released by 3 pm from prisonafter 98 days in judicial custody.

The dollar case had come to light during the probe intothe gold smuggling racket in Kerala in which also Sivasankaris an accused.

Granting bail, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistratecourt (Economic Offences)said, ''Truly, the offence againstthe petitioner is serious in nature and requires intensiveprobe''.

Pointing out that Sivasankar had ''sufficientknowledge''about smuggling of foreign currencies perpetrated with thehelp of the prime accused, the court said, ''such knowledge andhis culpable failure to bring the smuggling to the notice ofappropriate authoritydespite the fact that he was a seniorcivil servant during relevant time, shall be viewedseriously''.

The court directed him to execute a bond of Rs one lakh,with two sureties for the like amount and appear before theinvestigating officers as and when required.

The judge observed that further detention of Sivasankar,who was a cancer survivor and had undergone surgery, was nolonger essential for the investigation of the case.

The Customs had arrested Sivasankar in the dollarsmuggling case on January 23.

Television visuals showed the IAS officer walking out ofthe Ernakulam district jail with a backpack and carrying booksin his arms around 3 pm.

He refused to talk to the media and left in the car of arelative.

Reacting to Sivasankar's bail, Senior Congress leaderRamesh Chennithala said proper investigation was not going onin the gold smuggling case and alleged that BJP and the CPI(M)were trying to sabotage the case and there was some secretunderstanding between them.

Sivasankar was in judicial custody for over three monthsdays following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED)and Customs in the cases relating to the sensational goldsmuggling through diplomatic channel, money trail and dollarsmuggling.

He was granted bail in two cases earlier and the dollarcase was the only one pending against him.

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.