IAS officer held for killing journalist in drunk-driving case

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman was arrested on Saturday after a car he drove in an allegedly inebriated condition fatally knocked down a senior journalist, police said. At around 1am on Saturday, Venkitaraman, who was returning from a party with a lady in the passenger seat, rammed his car into a bike, killing the rider K M Basheer, 36, immediately.
Basheer was the Thiruvananthapuram bureau chief of the vernacular daily, Siraj. Police said Venkitaraman was heavily drunk at the time of the accident. The accident comes when, ironically, Kerala police and the transport department are planning to observe a month-long road safety and accidentfree month from August 5. Venkitaraman, currently director of survey and land records, initially refused to cooperate and the police, on learning who he was, reportedly didn’t insist.
However, after the media unrelentingly focused on the accident, police arrested Venkitaraman late on Saturday. According to eyewitness accounts, Basheer had stopped his motorcycle on the side of the road to take a phone call, when the car rammed him.
In the impact of the collision, both Basheer and his motorcycle were thrown high up in the air. His head crashed against the side wall, causing serious injuries in the back of his head. It was only on Thursday that Venkitaraman was appointed director of Survey and Land Records. He had been on leave for over a year for pursuing higher studies at Harvard University in the US.
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References

1. ^{^} IAS officer (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
2. ^{^} journalist (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
3. ^{^} Thiruvananthapuram (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
4. ^{^} Kerala (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
5. ^{^} Harvard University (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

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