THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau officials on Wednesday conducted searches in the bank lockers of Congress leader and former Health Minister VS Sivakumar and one of his friends, who is also facing a probe in the disproportionate assets case. Vigilance sources said the locker of Sivakumar was empty, while that of his friend N S Harikumar was found to be having gold ornaments weighing 155 sovereigns.
The searches were conducted after obtaining warrants from the Vigilance court. Since Sivakumar informed the authorities that the key of his locker in a nationalised bank’s Vazhuthacaud branch had gone missing, the locker was cut open. The Vigilance sources said they will now check the bank documents to see whether the valuables were removed previously.
Meanwhile, Vigilance sleuths recovered 155 sovereigns of gold from Harikumar’s locker in another nationalised bank’s Puthenchantha branch. The search was held in the presence of Harikumar and his wife. Meanwhile, Sivakumar said the search has validated his claim that he was innocent. “The efforts are on to discredit me. The allegation that I intentionally hid the locker key was false,” he said.