THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta will soon submit a report on IAS officer M Sivasankar, who is under the scanner for his alleged links with the accused in the gold smuggling case. Assuring that the report would be submitted without much delay, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the government had no reservations in taking tough action against the guilty. He dismissed the allegations of Opposition UDF that the investigation by the state government was a farce.
“Chief secretary being the topmost officer is the ideal person for the probe and the government views the investigation seriously,” he said.Pinarayi said the probe by Mehta is on Sivasankar’s actions pertaining to the state government while the Central agencies are probing the smuggling and terrorism angles. He said the investigation by Central agencies was effective and the government welcomed it. Responding to charges that Arun Balachandran, an IT Fellow to the CM, helped the accused find accommodation, Pinarayi said that all the accused would find themselves in the list of accused prepared by the investigating agencies.
The probe will aim to find how Swapna managed to get a plum posting in a project under the IT department using fake degree certificate. She was appointed operations manager of Space Park Projects under Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd (KSITIL) after she left her job in UAE Consulate.The probe report would be significant as any action on Sivasankar, who was the chairman of KSITIL, hinges on it.
Oppn attacks CM for not suspending Sivasankar
T’Puram: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday flayed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for refusing to suspend bureaucrat M Sivasankar despite Customs officials grilling him for nine hours in the gold smuggling case. “Sivasankar had been helping the gold smugglers for four years. Doesn’t Pinarayi feel ashamed for shielding him? He is deceiving people by claiming there is no evidence against Sivasankar despite his call details, which showed he had been in touch with the main accused, being made public,” he said. He said though there was evidence against Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel (who had spoken to Swapna nine times in June), Pinarayi was maintaining he was innocent. Chennithala also flayed Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan over his links with the accused persons and termed the government-level investigation initiated against Sivasankar by the chief secretary and finance secretary as ‘farce’.