Sreya Kanugula
The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court for Economic Offenses gave bail to Mr. M Sivasankar, the former principal secretary of the Kerala Chief Minister in the gold smuggling case of Kerala.
The case was registered by the department of customs. The court granted him bail since the customs department hadn’t filed the charge sheet with regards to the case.
However, the accused will continue to stay in prison since the case registered upon him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) remains.
This gold smuggling case pertained to gold being smuggled throughout the state with the use of diplomatic channels.
It came to light after around 30 kgs of gold that was worth approx. Rs. 14.82 crores which were being smuggled inside a camouflaged consignment of diplomatic baggage, were busted by customs in Thiruvananthapuram on the 5th of July in 2019.
The case continues to be probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), National Investigative Agency, and the department of customs.