Senior bureaucrat M. Sivasankar has penned an autobiographical work on his trials and tribulations as an accused in the politically stormy UAE gold smuggling case.
Next week, a private publishing house will release Aswhathamavu Verum Oru Ana.
Mr. Sivasankar was the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan when the Customs, and later the Enforcement Directorate, implicated him in the smuggling of gold from Dubai using the UAE Consulate's diplomatic status as a cover.
Mr. Sivasankar's alleged association with one of the suspects, Swapna Suresh, had arguably got him entangled in the case. Mr. Sivasankar was widely perceived as the face of the Chief Minister's Office when he suffered a precipitous fall from favour and social acceptance.
In October 2020, the Customs arrested him on the charge of abetting gold smuggling. He subsequently served three months as a remand prisoner on a sub-jail cell's "cold floor".
In the book, Mr. Sivasankar vehemently denies the charges against him. The book reportedly claims that the high-profile Customs and ED investigations appeared targetted at Mr. Vijayan.
The book reportedly claims the investigators seemed under pressure to implicate the Chief Minister and his office, perhaps for political reasons. The agencies allegedly attempt to coerce Mr. Sivasankar to incriminate Mr. Vijayan.
Insider’s view
The book provided an insider's view of the gold smuggling case, albeit from the perspective of a suspect.
By one account, the book claims that Swapna's alleged complicity in the crime had shocked Mr. Sivasankar. He contested the Centre's argument that he was the mastermind of the gold smuggling plot.
Mr. Sivasankar also denied that he had helped Swapna land a job in a State-run corporation. (An inquiry by the then Chief Secretary had faulted Mr. Sivasankar for allegedly interacting without authorisation with a UAE consulate employee. At the time, Swapna was on the payrolls of the consulate in Thiruvananthapuram).
