Supreme Court: In a plea by M. Sivasankar, former principal secretary to Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, seeking interim bail on medical grounds, the Division Bench of A.S. Bopanna and M.M. Sundresh, JJ. granted interim bail for 2 months on medical grounds.
M. Sivasankar sought bail on the grounds that he required decompression surgery on the spinal cord and post-operative care. Therefore, while allowing bail, the Court limited his visits to the hospital and his home and no other place during the said period of 2 months of bail.
Sivasankar is one of the accused in the LIFE Mission money laundering case. That was the reason that the Enforcement Directorate (‘ED’) strongly opposed the bail for Sivasankar being an influential personality and releasing him on bail may impact the investigation. It was further suggested that he may be taken to the hospital of his choice at his own expense while pressing on to keep him in judicial custody.
As per reports, M. Sivasankar had been in custody since February 2023 after his arrest by ED. He had applied for bail before the Special Court at Kochi, which was rejected. The same before the High Court was also dismissed and a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court paved his way to apply before Special Court for seeking interim bail for medical emergencies. When the Special Court again rejected his bail plea due to his failure to demonstrate the element of emergency and when he approached the High Court, it suggested Sivasankar to seek bail before the Supreme Court, hence the instant matter.
Source: Press