Kerala IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman was arrested on Saturday for killing a journalist, K.M Basheer, in a road accident. The IAS officer was allegedly drunk while driving the car, lost control over it and hit Basheer’s two-wheeler yesterday. The state is still reeling under the shock of the incident, since Sriram was a name in the good books of Kerala public, for his courageous anti-encroachment drive at Munnar.
Sriram was at odds against many leaders of the Left during his stint at Munnar and it seems many of them are using the current situation to their political advantage. Advocate and social activist Harish Vasudevan, in his Facebook post, reasserted that Sriram’s current predicament doesn’t cancel his efforts as an IAS officer. He also warns that nobody should use this situation to justify the encroachers in Munnar or Minister M.M Mani who had openly taken a stand against him in the Munnar issue.
An IAS officer takes a strong stand against land encroachment happening with the support of some politicians. The chief minister and other ministers take a stand against him. Media eulogizes him. Naturally, the party symathisers seek revenge against him. If he is found guilty for his action(road accident) he will receive the punishment, he will not be hanged to death,” wrote Harish on his Fb.
After adding the legal technicalities of the case, Harish points out the ‘politics’ being pushed now.
Many who seek revenge against Sriram has come out now. Most of them are party sympathisers and that too who killed their opponents over political rivalry. But they cannot eliminate the appreciation Sriram had got for his efforts while he was the IAS officer. Nobody should set out to justify M.M Mani or encroachers in Munnar using this case” he added.
Check out his Facebook Post
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