THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has taken action against Arun Balachandran of the IT department for booking a flat for the gold smuggling case accused.

Arun has been removed from the position of Marketing and Operations Director to the Chief Minister’s High Power Digital Committee. Arun Balachandran first worked in the CM’s office as an IT Fellow to the Chief Minister but following the Sprinklr controversy, he was appointed in the new post.

Arun said that he had booked the flat as he was asked to do so by former IT secretary M. Sivasankar. Arun was very close to Shivashankar.

Arun explained that through a Whatsapp message, Shivashankar had asked her to book a room for his friend Jayashankar and his family for six days as they were vacating their house. Jayashankar is the husband of gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh.

Jayashankar is the husband of gold smuggling case accused The Customs' finding is that the accused had conspired for gold smuggling from this flat. The Flat caretaker also told the Customs that it was Arun who booked the room. The recorded phone conversion with him was also handed over to the Customs.

Meanwhile, the government and sources from the IT department said the action against Arun was taken as he got involved in the issue that maligned the government reputation.