‘CM was the real target’: Kerala top bureaucrat named in gold smuggling case in new book

“Before Memory Fades. There is no book better titled than Fali S Nariman’s autobiography to read when you are in the custody of law enforcement agencies,” M Sivasankar, former principal secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, writes in the last chapter of his new book.

While arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on October 28, 2020–the same day his anticipatory bail was rejected by the high court–Sivasankar says he was not prepared to be taken into custody, especially with no book on him. A self-confessed avid reader, the next day, still in custody at the ED’s office in Kochi, Sivasankar borrowed Fali S Nariman’s autobiography from his lawyer S Rajeev. Across 98 days of prison life, Sivasankar claims he read 128 books. “Reading books and listening to the life stories of fellow prisoners saved me from going insane,” Sivasankar tells The Federal, recollecting the days of his interrogation, arrest and prison life.

The real target

Sivasankar’s book is a detailed account of his side of the story related to all the offences he is being accused of–gold smuggling, dollar smuggling, allegations of corruption and bribery in a housing scheme of Life Mission project of Kerala government and even over the distribution of dates by the UAE Consulate.

According to Sivasankar, he was framed as part of a larger political agenda played by someone who wanted to target the Chief Minister and the Kerala government.

“Cases after cases by multiple agencies [the Customs, the Enforcement Directorate and the NIA], 90 hours of interrogation, 98 days in custody and prison and a brutally one-sided media trial. By the end, no one found a single piece of evidence connecting the CM’s office with the ‘much-celebrated’ gold smuggling through diplomatic channels,” says Sivasankar.

The book–Aswathama, the elephant–published by DC Books, is slated to hit the stands today (February 4). “In the battle of Kurukshetra, Aswathama–the elephant–was killed as a result of a conspiracy. He was a harmless elephant who had been the victim of the battle for power and blood lust,” says Sivasankar.

In the course of the event that shook Kerala over a period of 9-10 months since July 2020, Sivasankar’s version of the story, he says, was never heard. It was mostly speculation and allegations in the guise of ‘source-based information’ that went around for weeks and months in Kerala. However, even after the dust settled down, the mystery behind the “involvement of CM’s office” in the gold smuggling case remained unresolved.

But what was Sivasankar’s role–the man who was said to be CM’s closest ally among the bureaucrats currently in service? “The whole idea was to link it to the CM and the political leadership. While in custody, I was advised, admonished and, at times, pressured to testify against the political leadership to extricate myself from the trap. However, I decided not to do so. I know what they wanted me to do—to pull someone else into the muck to escape from the same. I decided better to stay inside rather than conniving to frame-up some other innocent people,” Sivasankar adds.

Gold smuggling

On July 5, 2020, customs officials seized 30 kg gold from diplomatic baggage meant for the staff in the United Arab Emirates Consulate General in Kerala. “Swapna Suresh [a former employee of the consulate who is the prime accused] was a family friend. She contacted me over phone and WhatsApp on July 1-2, seeking help to get a consignment released which was held by the customs. I told her that customs had their own procedure and I could not interfere with the same. On July 4 night, Swapna and her husband came to my apartment and told me that the consignment that came through the diplomatic channel to the consulate was held by the customs. She also said there were some materials like car stereos for which duty was not paid and that must be the reason for the customs holding the consignment. I repeated what I said earlier that I cannot interfere with any proceedings of any such agencies.”

The very next day, the customs managed to get permission from the consulate to open the baggage and found 30 kg gold hidden inside some electronic equipment, “I have not heard from Swapna thereafter,” Sivasankar claims, adding that he was unable to comprehend what happened after that since it all happened so fast.

On July 6, BJP state chief K Surendran made a statement that a call was made from the CMO to the customs to get the smuggled gold released. The then opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala repeated the allegation raised by the BJP chief that ‘top brass’ in the CMO called up the customs to cover up the case. Within hours, television channels broke the news claiming that Sivasankar, who had a ‘personal association’ with Swapna, called up a customs officer and tried to negotiate to get the consignment released. This was the most politically charged allegation that put the ruling party in the dock in the whole tenure of its previous term in government.

“If such a call was made, who was the customs officer who received the call? Nobody. Till date, this allegation remains unfounded. Where did the BJP chief get such information from? It also remains a mystery,” says Sivasankar.

Lack of evidence

By the end of his interrogation from July to October–around 15 days and 90 hours–one thing was apparently clear, he claims. The investigating agencies had tremendous pressure on them to turn the needle of suspicion towards the chief minister. It was the format and content of the questions raised by all three agencies that made Sivasankar arrive at this conclusion. “For example, there was a lengthy session on the duty-free dates distributed to schoolkids by the UAE Consulate in 2017.”

How did Sivasankar get involved in the Consulate’s programme of distribution of dates to school students as part of UAE government’s ‘Year of Giving’?

“Simple,” he says. “I was told that the Consulate wants to distribute dates to school students in Kerala. I pointed out the practical challenges in doing the same. I told them there are 3.6 million students in Kerala. They did not have dates in such huge quantities. Besides, it was the time of summer holidays and schools were closed. Hence, I suggested distributing the dates to children in shelter homes run by the social justice department. They happily accepted that suggestion and the rest of the procedure was done by the social justice department.”

A whole day–on October 9, 2020–the customs interrogated Sivasankar on “the illegality of distributing dates which were imported duty free”. “I was told what I did was wrong. I should have asked them to send a formal letter and forward the same for approval of the public administration, finance and law departments. I should have also taken the approval from the Ministry of External Affairs. Then the Consulate would have been asked to pay the duty. The dates were imported for ‘own use of the consulate general’ and were not supposed to be used for a public purpose.”

Sivasankar claims he slowly realised that the customs wanted someone to be held responsible for distributing the “duty-free dates by the Consulate and thus to connect it to the CM”.

“I understood that they had an intention to drag the social justice department director TV Anupama into this. Then I told them that I was taking the entire responsibility if anything illegal or improper happened with regard to the distribution of dates.”

While such an interrogation was taking place inside the office of the customs in Broadway, Ernakulam, television news channels were airing ‘breaking news’ about the suspected gold smuggling concealed inside dates, says Sivasankar.

From hospital bed to prison

The continuous travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi for appearing before the investigating agencies for hours of interrogation, he claims, worsened his health condition. He has been under treatment for intervertebral disc prolapse since 2019. “Due to the continuous travelling, the back pain had become very severe. Even after long sessions of interrogation for more than 15 days, the investigating agencies kept serving summons for further appearances again and again.”

On October 15, 2020, Sivasankar had gone through nearly 10 hours of interrogation. He travelled back home all the way to Thiruvananthapuram after verifying with the customs officers whether there would be interrogation the very next day. He says he was informed that there would not be any interrogation soon, but that was a false promise.

“I was a bit relieved to know that the customs would not be summoning me immediately again. That’s what they told me. Somehow, I managed to reach home lying in the backseat of the car. I was wearing a belt for back support. I was suffering from severe pain. Within a couple of hours, two customs officers knocked at my door. They wanted me to go with them. I asked them whether it was an arrest. They did not say anything clearly but only insisted I have to go with them for interrogation. On the way to the office of the customs at Thiruvananthapuram, the officers understood that my health condition was too bad to take me for another round of interrogation. I was taken to the hospital.”

He got discharged after two days of admission in ICU. “By that time, TV channels were already running headlines that I was pretending to be unwell only to avoid arrest. Despite being discharged, I was not in a condition to even walk. Family members and friends insisted I go for further treatment and thus I got admitted to an Ayurveda hospital. The doctor advised me to go for a two-week treatment.”

But on the tenth day of the admission in the Ayurveda hospital–on October 28, 2020–his anticipatory bail plea was dismissed by the high court. “Within 10 minutes of the pronouncement of the order, two ED officials reached the hospital and demanded that I must go with them to Kochi. I understood that they would take me even by force if the doctor refused to release me. I left the hospital with the ED officials in full media glare. TV camera crews accompanied the ED’s vehicle to Kochi. After six hours of journey, we reached the ED office by 6 pm and the arrest was formally recorded. I got the arrest memo only by night.”

He was shocked to see what was written in the memo. “It said I had confessed that I called up the customs authorities to get the consignment released at the request of Swapna Suresh. It also said I was aware of the smuggling of gold through the diplomatic channel that happened 21 times before it was caught the last time. I have never given any such confession statement before any investigating agency till date. The Enforcement Directorate even claimed that my confession statement was produced before the court.”

After 14 days of custody, the bail plea was submitted before the principal sessions court, Ernakulam. The court rejected the bail application but made an observation that no confession statement of Sivasankar, as claimed by the Enforcement Directorate, was submitted in the court. “The court stated that no such statement [that Sivasankar admitted that he had called a customs officer to get the consignment released as per the wish of Swapna] was there in the case documents, or in the sealed cover submitted by the ED. The court further stated that the customs officer whom Sivasankar called also was not questioned. Till date, nobody knows who that customs officer was.”

Prison life

Sivasankar feels prisons could slowly kill inmates from inside. “It reduces one’s value as a human being. The alienation from the world around has a chilling effect on a prisoner,” he adds.

“Reading books saved me from losing my mind. But even books were rationed. There was a good library in the jail. Initially, I was allowed to keep five books at a time. Later, it was reduced to two for reasons unknown. I used to keep a notebook to write down some paragraphs from the books I read. One day, I borrowed a pen from a jailer. After a few minutes, a team of jail officials barged into the cell and confiscated the pen and the notebook. I came to know that pen and paper were ‘powerful weapons’ with which inmates could pass on secret messages.”

The ban on pen and notebook was ended by a court order. Sivasankar moved a petition in the trial court and the court passed an order letting him keep pen and paper while in prison.

Sivasankar observes jail from the view of an experienced civil servant. “A major challenge is the huge information gap that the prisoners have. Many of them do not even know the status of their own case. For ordinary people, the opportunity to discuss their case with lawyers is minimal inside the jail. Any prisoner is entitled for default bail if the prosecution fails to submit the charge sheet within 90 days of arrest. I met people inside the jail who had no clue whether the charge sheets in their cases were submitted or not.”

He has some suggestions to tackle the issue. “I would suggest incorporating a practice of availing the services of final year law students to bridge this gap. Like the ‘house surgency programme’ for medical students, law students also need to have a programme in their syllabus to address the legal needs of inmates in jail.”

Sivasankar also suggests that there is a need to revamp the occupational training programmes in jail. There is no mechanism to ensure that occupational training given in jail has a long-term impact and sustainability. The inmates who are being trained to do various activities in jail should be given certificates which would enable them to make a living when they go out. There is a need to find one’s passion and to provide an environment to develop the same. “I met a young man who had a passion for repairing bikes. There was another inmate who had a real taste for gardening, but they never got the opportunities to develop such skills.”

Sivasankar observes that there is no institutional mechanism to accommodate and rehabilitate undertrial prisoners back to the society. “They are only undertrial prisoners and not culprits. They might be acquitted after months and years of prison life, but they will face ostracism from society,” he laments.

Life, he adds, will never be the same for them. “They will not get their jobs back. There are many others whose education comes to an abrupt end. We need to develop a systemic solution to these problems.”

Sivasankar is not anxious about the future. “The process itself is the punishment. What is the use of being acquitted after 10 or 15 years? Do we really need more people like Nambi Narayanan [former ISRO scientist falsely implicated in espionage case] to showcase how slowly the wheels of justice turn?”

Finally, Sivasankar says he wanted to write the book now because people may easily forget the injustice meted out to him. “If I wait for another 10 or more years to speak out [until the closure of the case], people will not even understand the relevance of my words.”