Former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister M.Sivasankar feigned illness and got himself admitted to the hospital where his wife worked to avoid questioning by the Customs in connection with the diplomatic channel gold smuggling case, a statement filed by the Customs before the Kerala High Court said.
The statement was filed in response to an anticipatory bail petition filed by Mr. Sivasankar. The court had on Monday directed the Customs not to arrest him till October 23 in the case.
Opposing the bail plea, the Customs pointed out that the pretended illness had turned out to be fake in view of the medical opinion which said painkillers would take care of his back pain.
In fact, he had executed a vakalath for the anticipatory bail on October 14, anticipating his arrest. However, the place where had put in his signature was not shown in the vakalath. It showed that he had made all plans to pretend illness and get himself admitted to the hospital where his wife worked to avoid questioning by the Customs.
Besides, his petition for anticipatory bail was not maintainable. It was mandatory under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure that the person who moved the petition should satisfy the court that he was charged with non-bailable offences and that he feared arrest in connection with the offences. Both these statements were absent in his petition. He had not specifically stated about the offence he had been charged with.
In his petition. Mr.Sivasankar said despite questioning him on many occasions, investigation agencies, including the customs, did not get any incriminating material to implicate him in the gold smuggling case.
He apprehended that if he was arrested, Customs officials would manhandle him. He also feared that the Customs would manage to register new crimes without any basis and get the petitioner remanded to satisfy political wisdom as well as other vested interests. Besides, the custodial interrogation of the petitioner was not required.
