KOCHI: After four-hour-long submissions and arguments, the Special Court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases remanded former principal secretary to chief minister M Sivasankar to 14-day judicial custody on Thursday. He was lodged in a cell along with two other remand prisoners at Kakkanad Borstal School, where juvenile prisoners were lodged earlier and which is now used as a Covid First-Line Treatment Centre for persons remanded in cases reported in Kochi city.
The court reserved its order on the bail petition till Tuesday. The long submissions and arguments were between Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, who appeared for the Enforcement Directorate via videoconferencing from New Delhi and senior advocate B Raman Pillai, who appeared for Sivasankar.The suspended IAS officer was produced before the court around 11am on expiry of his 15-day custody with ED.
During his argument, Raman Pillai claimed that ED was relying on a very recent statement given by accused Swapna Suresh when questioned at the jail that the money seized from her locker was a kickback meant for Sivasankar in LIFE Mission project.
He claimed that Swapna’s statement was recorded by ED on eight occasions before questioning her at the jail and she had maintained during those sessions that Sivasankar had no role in the case. Hence, her previous statements should also be considered. ASG Raju submitted that Sivasankar was the kingpin of the gold smuggling.
‘Sivasankar knew consignment seized by customs was gold’
ASG Raju submitted that Sivasankar was the kingpin behind gold smuggling. “If Swapna is the face, Sivasankar is the mask behind gold smuggling. He is the mastermind behind gold smuggling. He knew about gold smuggling. Swapna was just his benami. The evidence include WhatsApp chats in this regard. He knew the consignment seized by the customs contained gold, due to which he refused to intervene,” he said.
Raman Pillai, who appeared for Sivasankar, submitted that even the final report filed by ED in the case claimed that `1 crore seized from Swapna’s locker was proceeds of crime from gold smuggling case. “Now after the money received from gold smuggling was found to be less than `1 crore, which is bailable as per PMLA, ED has created a new story that it was a kickback received from the LIFE Mission project. The joint locker was started in the names of Swapna and Sivasankar’s chartered accountant in 2018 while the gold smuggling started only in November 2019,” he submitted.
“The ED’s aim is the Chief Minister’s Office. On each page of Sivasankar’s statement, there are at least two questions about the chief minister. The ED’s claim that the money found in Swapna’s locker is contrary to the National Investigation Agency’s stand that it was proceeds of the crime generated from gold smuggling,” he said.On this, the court observed that it is not concerned about kickbacks but wants to know whether it is the proceeds of gold smuggling. Similarly, claiming that money in Swapna’s locker was of Sivasankar itself is against the ED case.
The judge also asked whether it isn’t early to look into the veracity of Swapna’s statement at this stage. Raman Pillai submitted that the only link the ED could come up with for proving that Sivasankar knew about gold smuggling is that he had contacted some airport officer in April 2019 at the instance of Swapna to clear a baggage.
“In fact, he had contacted an officer whom he doesn’t remember now to clear the baggage containing edible goods that landed in Kochi airport. He doesn’t remember whether it was the food safety officer or a former senior officer of the customs who after retirement was working with NORKA. Other than this allegation, no other details about the officer were have been presented by ED till now,” he said.
In the post-lunch session, ASG Raju submitted that Sivasankar was the kingpin behind gold smuggling. “If Swapna is the face, Sivasankar is the mask behind gold smuggling. He is the mastermind behind gold smuggling. He knew about gold smuggling. Swapna was just his benami. The evidence include WhatsApp chats in this regard. He knew that the consignment seized by the customs contained gold, due to which he refused to intervene,” he said Raju claimed that the locker started by Swapna and Venugopal was controlled by Sivasankar. “As the locker had Sivasankar’s money, Venugopal was frequently passing information about the operation of the locker on to Sivasankar,” he said.
He said ED can probe the LIFE Mission project as part of the investigation in the gold smuggling case. He stated that there are amendments brought in the PMLA which permit ED to do so. Similarly, The Kerala Vigilance Department has registered a case in the LIFE Mission scam which is a predicated offence under PMLA.