An Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer in Kerala, who was accused of drunken driving and allegedly caused a journalist’s death in Thiruvananthapuram in 2019, was cleared of culpable homicide charges on Wednesday.
IAS officer Sriram V, along with co-passenger Wafa Feroz, were allegedly guilty of causing journalist K M Basheer’s death on August 3, 2019. Basheer was killed after a speeding car rammed into him in Thiruvananthapuram city.
Sriram was accused of drunken driving, and also tampering with the evidence.
It was alleged that Sriram was driving the car and was in an inebriated state, but the police did not perform a blood alcohol medical test on him, citing that a woman was driving the car.
Later the police filed a charge-sheet against Sriram and Feroz, who were both charged with offences of culpable homicide.
Sriram and Feroz filed discharge petitions at a local court in the city, where the court relieved the accused from culpable homicide charges as it could not be established that there was drunken driving. The accused would now only have charges of causing death by negligence.
Meanwhile, the deceased journalist’s family, reacting to the ruling, said that the case was sabotaged as the cops deliberately delayed the blood alcohol test, which ultimately led to Sriram being absolved of culpable homicide charges.
Published 19 October 2022, 16:35 IST