IAS officer remanded in judicial custody for killing journalist in road accident

IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman has been remanded judicial custody under the charges of knocking a journalist in an inebriated condition. The official has been charged under a non-bailable offence and the provision provides for a jail term of up to 10 years.

Thiruvananthapuram:IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman, who was arrested Saturday after a car he drove in an allegedly inebriated condition, fatally knocked down a journalist here, was remanded in judicial custody, police said.

The 33-year-old IAS officer, who was appointed Survey Director by the state cabinet on Thursday, 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, they said.

"The magistrate came to the hospital where he was admitted and remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days," said an investigating officer

The official has been charged under a non-bailable offence and the provision provides for a jail term of up to 10 years, said IGP and Thiruvananthapuram city Police Commissioner Dhinendra Kashyap.

Police said Venkitaraman will remain at the hospital as the doctors advised so.

Venkitaraman, also a doctor and Fullbright Fellow, allegedly drove his car in a rash manner and hit the stationary motorcycle of K Muhammed Basheer (35), Bureau Chief of Malayalam newspaper 'Siraj', on a road in the heart of the city as he was returning home from work.

Basheer is survived by his wife and two children.

The IAS officer had just returned to Kerala after completing a Masters in Public Health Programme at Harvard University in the US.

Meanwhile, people from various walks of life, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, state ministers Kadakampally Surendran, E Chandrashekharan, P Thilothaman, Opposition leader in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala, CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran and other MLAs paid their respects to Basheer after his mortal remains were brought to the Press Club here.