Thiruvananthapuram: The special National Investigation Agency Court in Kochi disposed of the anticipatory bail application filed by M Shivashankar, the Former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Kerala, in connection with the Kerala Gold Smuggling scam.
The petition was settled as the NIA team informed the court that M Shivashankar was not an accused in the gold scam and the team told the court that the bail plea need not be considered. Advocate B Raman Pillai who appeared for Shivasankar also agreed as he was not termed as an accused in the case.
Earlier, the High Court of Kerala asked the Enforcement Directorate and the Customs Department not to arrest him considering the deterioration of his health. He had argued in the High Court that the Customs Department officials were treating him like a criminal and planned to discharge him from the hospital.
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The High Court would consider Shivasankar's anticipatory bail plea in the case registered by the Customs Department and the Enforcement Directorate tomorrow. On the other hand, the Customs Department registered the case under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which would regard Shivasankar's anticipatory bail plea as invalid.
"The application is not maintainable in law at all particularly under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is mandatory under that section that a person seeking the discretionary powers of the court should satisfy in the application for pre-arrest bail that he is charged with non-bailable offences and that he apprehends arrest," it had said.
The former IT secretary in Kerala was questioned by various teams for over 100 hours, 11 times and his advocate argued in the High Court that he was cooperative with the investigation since the beginning even though he was found as an accused in the case.
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