Thiruvananthapuram: M Sivasankar, the now-removed Principal Secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, has reportedly told NIA officials that he was given liquor laced with psychotropic substances at night parties organised at the residence of Swapna Nair, an accused in the case.
Reports said Sivasankar had made the revelations in the marathon questioning by the NIA in its Kochi office on 27 and 28 July.
The Customs officials have been questioning the two key accused in the sensational Kerala gold smuggling case- Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair- who were on Tuesday sent to five-day Customs custody by a court in Kochi.
Accepting a etition by the Customs department, the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court of Economic Offences here granted it custody of Suresh and Nair till August 1.
It directed the Customs to keep Swapna Suresh under the surveillance of a lady Customs officer not below the rank of Superintendent during custody.
Suspended Kerala top IAS officer M Sivasankar on Tuesday appeared before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) team probing the sensational gold smuggling case using diplomatic channel.
This was 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 cases urfaced.
After he was questioned for nearly nine hours on Monday, Sivasankar was directed by the NIA to appear before the team again Tuesday morning