Thiruvananthapuram: IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman has been granted bail by the judicial magistrate at the local court here at Vanchiyoor over a sensational road accident in which one person was killed.
Journalist K M Basheer had lost his life after the car apparently driven by the bureaucrat crashed into his bike in the early hours of Saturday.
The court granted bail to Sriram 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. Moreover, the court likely took into account his continuing medical treatment for a hand injury received during the accident.
"Bail application allowed", the judge said, accepting the defence argument that there was no alcohol content in the blood sample of the accused.
Even though the police argued that Sriram should be in their custody as he could influence witnesses if out on bail, the court rejected this.
Meanwhile, the ongoing probe into the accident has come under a cloud over the conduct of police officers. A series of missteps by cops indicated they were obviously lax in carrying out crucial procedures in an accident that claimed one life on a city road a few nights ago.
Sriram's blood sample was taken nine hours after the mishap.
The accident happened around 12:55am on Saturday. However, the FIR was filed only at 7:17 am and that too by omitting the name of the car driver. Even as the cops claimed that though the CCTV cameras had captured the images of the car, it cannot be confirmed as to who was driving. The police also claimed that the speed at which Sriram was driving the car was not recorded anywhere.
Sriram 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.
The State Police Chief Loknath Behra has constituted a special team, headed by Additional Director General of Police Shaik Darvesh Saheb, to investigate the case.
Basheer, 35, was the Thiruvananthapuram Bureau Chief of Malayalam daily "Siraaj", was on his home from work when the mishap occurred on Saturday.