Kerala CM’s ex-aide M. Shivashankar gets bail

Shivashankar will come out of the Kakkanad sub jail in Ernakulam on Wednesday after 98 days of incarceration.

Thiruvananthapuram: The former principal secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, M. Shivashankar got bail from the Economic Offence special court, Ernakulam in the dollar smuggling case.

The senior bureaucrat has already got bails in the gold smuggling and money laundering cases.

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In the third case, he was charged for smuggling dollars to the UAE. The court granted him bail after the arguments by the Customs were countered by his legal team.

Shivashankar will come out of the Kakkanad sub jail in Ernakulam on Wednesday after 98 days of incarceration. He was granted bail after furnishing a bond of Rs 2 lakh and two personal securities of the same amount. He will also have to appear before the investigating officer on all Mondays.

Shivashankar was a powerful bureaucrat in the Chief minister’s Office. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the CPI(M) have already distanced themselves from the fallen bureaucrat.

The first accused Swapna Prabha Suresh and second accused P.S. Sarith are still in jail after they were charged under COFEPOSA case. However, the NIA had registered the case under the UAPA for anti-national activities and had questioned Shivashankar several times but had not charged him under the Act.

The bail of Shivashankar will bring some relief to the LDF in the coming Assembly elections and the front will conduct a blitzkrieg campaign that the gold smuggling case was a farce one.

BJP spokesperson Sandeep Varrier while speaking to media persons said, “Bail is a natural process and this does not mean that Shivashankar is acquitted and the LDF cannot get away from this.”