Once Kerala’s most powerful bureaucrat, M Sivasankar again finds himself in trouble

Under the project, the UAE Red Crescent, which is affiliated with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, agreed to provide 10 million UAE dirhams for constructing housing units for flood victims and a health centre. For this, an MoU was entered into on July 11, 2019, between the UAE Red Crescent Authority and the Government of Kerala through the CEO of Life Mission.

Sivasankar was the most powerful bureaucrat in Kerala between 2016 and 2020 during the tenure of the first Vijayan government.

State Congress president K Sudhakaran said scandals were “coming out one after another”. He said, “Everyone knows Sivasankar is Vijayan’s conscience-keeper and knows many secrets pertaining to Vijayan.”

Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, who is from Kerala, tweeted, “CM had tried to cease files related to these issues so nothing has come out. Now since the former principal secretary has been arrested, the CM has no right to continue in power and he must resign.”

Indian Union Muslim League general secretary P M A Salam claimed that Sivasankar’s arrest had brought Vijayan under the shadow of suspicion. The IUML is part of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

This is the third time Sivasankar has been arrested. The ED arrested him in 2021 in cases related to dollar smuggling and alleged financial transactions with Swapna Suresh and P S Sarith who are the other key accused in the gold smuggling case. The year before, he spent 100 days in judicial custody after the ED arrested him on money laundering charges related to the smuggling scandal.

The central agency alleged then that the IAS official had helped Suresh park the proceeds from the smuggling deal and added that Sivasankar prompted a chartered accountant named Venugopal Iyer to open a joint bank locker with Suresh.

Sivasankar was suspended in July 2020. It was revoked in January 2022, months after the Left returned to power, and he was reinstated as principal secretary of the relatively low-profile sports and youth affairs department.

The bureaucrat’s rise

An engineering graduate, Sivasankar worked with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for some time before getting recruited to the state government service as a deputy collector in the revenue department. In 1995, he became an IAS following a recommendation from the then Congress government led by A K Antony.

Sivasankar proved his administrative acumen as the collector of Malappuram from 2003 to 2006. During his tenure, the district adopted an e-literacy scheme. The bureaucrat went on to serve as the director of public instruction in the education department and tourism. He also worked as secretary of the public works department.

He is said to have become close to the CPI(M) during his tenure as the chairperson of the state electricity board during the rule of the previous Congress government. In 2016, Vijayan handpicked Sivasankar as his principal secretary.

From then on, his role would only continue to grow. Apart from being the face of the bureaucracy at the CM office, Sivasankar handled the role of the Information Technology (IT) department’s secretary.

Before the gold smuggling scandal, the government came under the scanner on another issue because of Sivasankar. As IT secretary, he entered a deal with the US-based Sprinklr for managing Covid-19 data in Kerala. The deal triggered criticism of compromising the privacy of citizens. This forced Vijayan to rescind the deal. The CPI, a constituent of the Left Democratic Alliance (LDF), blamed Sivasankar but the CM shielded the bureaucrat.

But the fortunes of the IAS officer, who retired on January 30, hit a slippery slope after the smuggling scandal.