Chargesheet filed against IAS officer in drunk driving case

A charge sheet was filed in a local court on Saturday against IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman, arraigned as the first accused in the case relating to fatally knocking down a journalist while driving a car in an intoxicated state in August last year.

Wafa Feroze, his woman friend, who was also in the luxury car, is the second accused in the case and has been charged with abetting the officer to drive the car rashly.

The around 70-page charge sheet was filed before the Judicial First Class Magistrate court here by the Special Investigation Team of the Crime branch, which probed the case.

The charge sheet has listed 100 witnesses and submitted 75 materials of evidence.

It states that the 33-year-old officer, now under suspension, was drunk and was behind the wheels in the over speeding car while returning from a private party on August 3 last year past midnight, police sources said.

The over speeding car hit journalist K M Basheer, who was on his motorcycle, killing him on the spot.

Venkitaraman, a doctor himself, allowed police to collect his blood sample for examination nine hours after the mishap and after getting himself admitted to a private hospital here.

His arrest was recorded nearly 17 hours later.

The officer was shifted to the Medical college hospital after Basheer's family and media personnel protested over the "five star treatment" being given to him at the private KIMS hospital.

Appointed Survey Director by the state cabinet in August 2019, Venkitaraman was booked under Sections 279 (rash driving on a public way) and 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code and damaging public property.

He was suspended from service and his driving licence cancelled.

On Thursday, the state government extended his suspension by another 90 days.