Gold smuggling row singes Kerala govt, CM Vijayan’s principal secretary gets the axe

New Delhi: As the gold smuggling row snowballed into a major controversy, the Kerala government was forced to remove M Sivasankar from the post of principal secretary to Chief Minister. This comes after his name emerged in a gold smuggling case, related to the UAE consulate in Trivandrum. Sivasankar will be replaced by Mir Muhammad, a young IAS officer, reports said.

The decision was taken due to his alleged connection to Swapna, the prime accused gold smuggling case.

Sivasankar, also the state’s IT secretary, had appointed the mastermind Swapna Suresh, a former UAE consulate officer, as the marketing liaison officer of the Space Park under the Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL).

What is the gold smuggling case in Kerala

Swapna Suresh is the prime accused in the gold smuggling racket, which was busted on Sunday after customs officials seized 30 kgs of gold from a diplomatic baggage addresses to the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.

It was later discovered that former employees of the consulate Swapna Suresh and Sarith Nair were involved in the gold smuggling. Both the accused were employees of the Consulate until six months ago.

The gold, which was a part of a diplomatic consignment, had arrived at the Thiruvananthapuram airport.

Vijayan govt in line of fire over scam

Congress leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala, demanding a CBI probe into the case.

“The chief minister has removed his secretary because he fears the case will reach him too…we have been ministers too. If our secretary or private secretary takes any decision, we are responsible too. When the chief minister’s secretary is misusing his official position by attempting to protect an accused in a gold smuggling racket, there’s no doubt that the responsibility of the same lies with the chief minister too,” Cong leader said.