Congress protests new role for officer in a car crash

TRIVANDRUM:THE Congress party has protested the choice of a Kerala officer charged with drunken driving leading to the death of a journalist three years back as a district collector.

Sreeram Venkitaraman is the new administrative head of Alappuzha while his wife Renu Raj was made the collector of the neighbouring district of Ernakulam.

A member of the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS), he allegedly hit journalist KM Basheer, 35, with his speeding car causing his sudden death past midnight.

Basheer was on his way home ater work and was talking on his mobile phone, parking his bike on the roadside on a high-security corridor in the state capital.

Co-passenger Wafa Firoz who contradicted his statement that she was at the wheel at the time of the “accident” is also a defendant in the case being heard by a city court.

Basheer’s colleagues allege foul play as the police could not retrieve any surveillance camera footage and delayed the blood test of the apparently drunk officer.

He was made the state’s survey director ater being shunted out from Idukki where he took on powerful ruling party politicians shielding land grabbers as the sub-collector.

Police filed the charge sheet to the chief judicial magistrate here under tremendous pressure from colleagues of the late journalist who was heading the bureau of Siraj daily.

He had been under suspension ater the crash on August 3, 2019 for seven months before being reinstated as a joint secretary at the health department seven months later.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan came under severe criticism ater he took Venkataraman back disregarding widespread outrage during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is an insane decision of a mad government,” Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said in Kozhikode where he was atending his party’s brainstorming session.

“Why is such an errant officer being put in charge of a sensitive district like Alappuzha? This government’s intention is under clouds.”

The crash happened at the Museum junction here, barely 100 metres away from the police station, around 12:55 am on the highsecurity road.

The surveillance cameras on this stretch frequented by Vijayan and his cabinet colleagues were either turned off or their footage went missing.

Wafa reportedly told the police that the officer called her to a club at Kowdiar, near Raj Bhavan, the governor’s residence, to take him home at 12.40.