Kerala Government extends Sivasankar’s suspension for the third time
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Former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, M. Sivasankar, will stay suspended from service for an additional interval of six months.
The embattled bureaucrat, who was for lengthy the face of the CM’s workplace in the earlier Left Democratic Front (LDF) authorities, had come beneath a cloud after being embroiled in the politically stormy UAE diplomatic channel gold smuggling case final yr.
As per Rule 3 (8) of the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, the authorities had not too long ago constituted a Suspension Review Committee to reexamine Mr Sivasankar’s case. The officer’s second suspension interval was as a result of finish on July 16.
By one account, the committee discovered that reinstating Mr. Sivasankar in civil service may be legally untenable at the present juncture. The Customs had issued a show-cause discover to him on the cost of abetting gold smugglers. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating the officer on suspicion of giving official cowl to racketeers to spirit away takings from gold smuggling in international foreign money from Kerala to Dubai.
Additionally, Mr. Sivasankar is going through an anti-corruption enquiry on the cost that he had “made a reference to appoint a person (Swapna)”, one in all the most important accused in the smuggling case, as advertising and marketing liaison officer of Space Project when she was beneath the payroll of the UAE consulate as government secretary to the consul basic.
The authorities had suspended Mr Sivasankar final July after a three-member committee headed by the then Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta concluded prima facie that the officer had violated civil service conduct guidelines. It later prolonged his suspension interval for six months.
Mr. Mehta had additionally identified that “such association and frequent contacts with a foreign consulate official” had violated the All India Service Conduct Rules, 1968. He had really helpful Mr Sivasankar’s suspension from service “given the wider ramifications of this case”.
The LDF has repeatedly maintained that political malfeasance had motivated the Central companies to implicate high authorities officers in the case wrongly. Its political place was conducive to Mr. Sivasankar’s rehabilitation.
The authorities had additionally factored in the political implications of reinstating Mr. Sivasankar, given the friction between the State and Centre over the Customs and Enforcement Directorate investigations into the gold smuggling case.
Both the Centre and State had dragged their variations of opinion to the High Court. The Kerala authorities had not too long ago upped the ante in its stand-off with the Centre by instituting a judicial fee to look at the alleged try on the a part of central companies to implicate Mr. Vijayan and his workplace in the case falsely.
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