THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Arun Balachandran, former IT fellow of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, has been sacked from the IT Department after it was revealed that he had helped former IT Secretary M Sivasankar to rent an apartment for Swapna Suresh and others, who are accused in gold smuggling case.
The decision to remove Arun, who was functioning as the Director of Marketing and Operations in High Power Digital Advisory Committee of Kerala Government, was taken after his correspondence with Sivasankar via WhatsApp on renting a flat to the gold smuggling accused came to light.
The Customs had suspicion that the plot to smuggle gold was hatched in this apartment. Earlier in the day, Arun had told TNIE that he acted on behalf of Sivasankar. “I don’t know the accused personally and have never met her or her family. I am ready to share the WhatsApp chat between me and Sivasankar regarding the flat with the investigation agency,” he said.