Sriram Venkitaraman
Kochi: The Kerala government has approached the High Court against IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman in the death of journalist KM Basheer in 2019. A court in Thiruvananthapuram had, in October, dropped the culpable homicide charges against Venkitaraman and his friend Wafa Firoz.
The government approached the high court against the sessions court judgement dropping charges under IPC Section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide).
In its petition, the government points out the errors in the sessions court's order. The government has also requested the court not to go ahead with the trial until further proceedings in the petition are completed.
Venkitaraman had approached the district court seeking the quashing of the chargesheet against him. The court dropped charges under Section 304. But charges under 304 A (causing death by negligence) and 279 (rash or negligent driving) and section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act remained.
The Special Investigation Team of the Crime Branch had filed a 70-page chargesheet before the Judicial First Class Magistrate court. The chargesheet states that the IAS officer had been drinking and was driving an overspeeding car while returning from a party at midnight on August 3, 2019. The vehicle hit Basheer, who was on a motorcycle, killing him on the spot.
The sessions court noted that the crime branch could not prove that the officer was under the influence of alcohol and hence charge of culpable homicide would not be sustained.
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