Thiruvananthapuram: IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Kerala High Court’s ruling that upheld charges of Culpable Homicide (Section 304) in the 2019 drunken driving case, which led to the death of journalist KM Basheer. The state government will oppose Venkitaraman’s petition in the apex court. 

Earlier, the Kerala High Court upheld the charges by accepting the Criminal Revision Petition filed by the state government after an Sessions Court dropped Section 304 charge against Venkitaraman and his friend, Wafa Firoz, in the case. 

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Nevertheless, in the petition, Venkitaraman pointed out that the Sessions Court had dropped the charges after careful inspection of all the facts related to the case. According to the officer, there is no factual evidence so as to uphold homicide charges against him. 

In its verdict, Kerala High Court had pointed out that prima facie Venkitaraman was in an inebriated state at the time of the incident and attempted to destroy evidence. The court also observed that the argument over the omission to conduct the officer’s blood test could not be taken lightly.  

KM Basheer, bureau chief of a vernacular daily, died after a car allegedly driven by Sriram Venkitaraman rammed into his bike in Thiruvananthapuram in the late hours of August 3, 2019.