Kerala journalist death case: IAS officer moves SC to remove culpable homicide charge

Venkitaraman in his plea said there was no evidence against him to support the imposition of murder charges.

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala IAS officer, Sriram Venkitaraman on Monday moved the Supreme Court to remove the culpable homicide charge in a 2019 road accident case which resulted in the death of journalist K.M. Basheer.

Venkitaraman in his plea said there was no evidence against him to support the imposition of murder charges.

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In November last year, the Kerala High Court had stayed the order of a lower court in the state capital city discharging Venkitaraman of culpable homicide charges.

The Kerala High Court had issued a notice to Venkitaraman on the plea moved by the state government challenging the lower court’s order and the High Court also stayed the lower court order. It was against this that the young medical professional turned IAS officer has now approached the apex court.

Venkitaraman was driving a car that rammed into Basheer, killing him in 2019.

The police allegedly found Venkitaraman in an inebriated state after the accident.

But there was a significant delay in collecting his blood sample for testing the alcohol level as Venkitaraman had managed to check himself out of the government hospital where the police had taken him.

Subsequently, a case was registered against Venkitaraman and the passenger, Wafa Firoz by the Museum Police, Thiruvananthapuram.

In October last year, the lower court discharged Venkitaraman of the offences under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of commission of offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act (MV Act), and Section 3(1)(2) of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

However, the Court framed charges against Venkitaraman under Sections 279 (rash driving) and 304(A) (causing death by negligence) of the IPC and Section 184 of the Motor Vehicle Act.