Thiruvananthapuram: Civil servants being accused of criminal offences and corruption, and getting arrested is not rare. However, it is the first time that an officer, who was a former Principal Secretary, has been arrested by a Central investigation agency. M Shivasankar also turned out as the first IAS officer taken into custody and arrested by a Central Investigation Agency in Kerala.
M Sivasankar was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday in the sensational gold smuggling case, hours after he lost a legal battle in the Kerala High Court for anticipatory bail. The ED, probing the money trail in the case, arrested the former principal secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after six hours of interrogation at its Kochi office, the latest in a series of grilling by the central agencies, official sources said.
Read: Gold smuggling case: ED arrests Kerala CM's close aide
T O Sooraj, former PWD secretary, who was arrested on corruption charges in connection with the Palarivattom flyover scam, is the first IAS officer from Kerala to be behind the bars. However, T O Sooraj had retired from service at the time of the arrest. In the case registered by the Vigilance department in the Palarovattom Flyover scam, a charge sheet is expected to be filed soon.
In the SNC Lavalin case, the CBI had listed former Energy department secretary Mohanachandran as an accused. Vigilance had taken a case against R Ramachandran Nair, who was the Chief Secretary, in connection with the Kaladi Sanskrit University land deal controversy.
Following this, in 1997, the then Chief Minister E K Nayanar had suspended Ramachandran Nair from the service. However, the High Court had later acquitted Ramachandran Nair in the case.
As the High Court’s remark in the ISRO spy case was detrimental, K Karunakaran who was the Chief Minister then had suspended Raman Srivastava, the South Zone Inspector General. The incident happened in 1994.
Read: ED grills former Kerala minister in money laundering case
Based on constable Ramachandran Nair’s disclosure, former Inspector General Lakshman was charged and convicted in the murder case of Naxal leader Varghese in Thirunelli forest region. IG Lakshmana was awarded a life sentence. Later on, as he suffered from physical ailments, his life term was relaxed by the Government.
