Thiruvananthapuram: A district court in the state capital on Wednesday dismissed the murder charges slapped on IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman and his friend Wafa Firoz in a case registered in the death of journalist KM Basheer. Thiruvananthapuram District Sessions Court pronounced the verdict in a discharge petition filed by the accused.
KM Basheer, the bureau chief of the Malayalam daily Siraj, died after a car allegedly driven by Sriram Venkitaraman rammed into his bike in Thiruvananthapuram in the late hours of August 3, 2019. The 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 accident and after getting himself admitted to a private hospital. His arrest was recorded nearly 17 hours later.
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 was drunk and was behind the wheels in the overspeeding car while returning from a private party on August 3 last year past midnight, police sources said.
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