Kerala journalist's death: Suspended IAS officer gets bail; official is accused of drunk driving which led to accident

Thiruvananthapuram: A Kerala court on Tuesday granted bail to suspended IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman, who was arrested for alleged drunken driving that caused the death of a journalist on 3 August. [caption id=“attachment_7104581” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Journalist KM Basheer was killed in a car accident in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. ANI[/caption] Judicial First Class Magistrate Aneesa A granted bail after perusing the chemical examination report of Venkitaraman’s blood samples, which was found negative for alcohol content and the case diary of the police. “Bail application allowed”, the judge said, accepting the defence argument that there was no alcohol content in the blood sample of the accused. Venkitaraman’s blood sample was taken nine hours after the mishap after he initially refused to provide it and after getting himself admitted in a private hospital. The IAS officer was arrested on 3 August, hours after the luxury car driven by him in an alleged inebriated condition while returning from a private party, hit journalist, K Muhammed Basheer, killing him on the spot. He was later remanded to 14 days judicial custody. The government had on Monday suspended the 33-year-old officer, who was serving as the survey director. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) had also been constituted to probe the case. 35-year-old Basheer, Thiruvananthapuram bureau chief of Malayalam daily “Siraj”, was on his home from work when the mishap occurred at around one am on Saturday.