THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: During the interrogation on Thursday, former principal secretary M Sivasankar reportedly told the NIA he had committed a flaw in establishing a close relationship with Swapna Suresh, one of the prime accused in the gold smuggling case.

The other day NIA sleuths had grilled him for about five hours after summoning him to Peroorkkada police club. The questioning which started at 4 pm continued till 8:55 pm.

The questions mainly revolved around Sivasankar’s relationship with the accused. He has reportedly told the NIA that Swapna Suresh’s husband Jayashankar is her relative and it was his association with him that got him close to Swapna and his family.

Sivasankar reportedly told the NIA that the failure to realise Swapna’s relationship with gold smugglers was his personal flaw. Intelligence agencies had not given him any input regarding this. If he had got any clue about it, he would have kept her away from him. He was not aware of Swapna’s educational qualifications, as well.

The NIA had earlier collected the statements given by Sivasankar to Customs and found some contradictions with the digital evidence available with them. It was on the basis of this that he was questioned on Thursday.

According to reports, most of the questions prepared in advance were on Sivasankar’s foreign trips, meetings abroad and details of any accused, who might have accompanied him to foreign countries.

The NIA had found out that in June, when the gold smuggling attempt was aborted, Sivasankar had made six phone calls to some foreign numbers.
When Sivasankar was called for questioning, it was rumoured that there would be arrest soon but he was allowed to go home by 9pm. He got into his brother's Wagan R car and left the police club.

Questioning an IAS officer by the NIA was the first-ever such incident in Kerala.