Gold Smuggling Scam: Sivasankar won't be arrested till October 23

The Kerala High Court asked the ED, which had earlier interrogated Sivasankar, to file its report on his anticipatory bail plea.  

The Kerala High Court has directed the Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the money trail in the sensational gold smuggling case, from arresting suspended IAS officer and former principal secretary to the Chief Minister, M Sivasankar, till October 23.

The court also asked the ED, which had earlier interrogated Sivasankar, to file its report on his anticipatory bail plea.

Sivasankaran had yesterday moves the court seeking bail

The move come after the ED -- in its chargesheet submitted to the special PMLA court -- revealed that Sivashankar has aided key accused Swapna Suresh to open a locker facility in Thiruvananthapuram SBI Bank jointly with his own Chartered Accountant P Venugopal.

Venugopal, a witness in the gold smuggling case, has revealed explosive details which points towards the involvement of the former bureaucrat.

The ED said that when it confronted Sivashankar with certain Whatsapp chats, he didn't give a proper explanation and appeared evasive.

The chargesheet concludes that in the light of the statements taken by many accused and witness, the role of Sivasankar in the entire episode needs to be thoroughly investigated.

Meanwhile, Swapna Suresh and Sarith PS -- two key accused in the high-profile Kerala gold smuggling case -- withdrew their bail pleas from a special NIA court in connection with the case being probed by the National Investigation Agency.