Chennai: Suspended Kerala top IAS officer M Sivasankar today appeared before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) team probing the sensational gold smuggling case using diplomatic channel.
This is the third time in the past one week that NIA is grilling the officer, removed as Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the state IT Secretary after allegations of his link with a key woman accused in the case surfaced.
After he was questioned for nearly nine hours on Monday, Sivasankar was directed by the NIA to appear before the team again this morning.
The NIA had summoned Sivasankar to its Kochi office as it wanted to get more details from him. He has been maintaining that he was not aware of the links Swapna Suresh, Sandeep Nair and Sarith P S had with gold smuggling and their underhand deals.
Senior officials from Hyderabad reached Kochi and prepared a questionnaire. If Sivasankaran’s role in the case is proved or if he confesses to the crime, he is likely to be arrested.