Court issues ultimatum to Sriram Venkitaraman to appear on Oct 12

Thiruvananthapuram: IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman has been issued an ultimatum to personally appear before a court here on October 12, in the case related to the death of journalist K M Basheer, who was mowed down by a speeding car. Sriram, who is the first accused, had failed to appear before the court three times despite summons. The last warning was issued by the First Class Magistrate Court (III) here.

A charge sheet was filed in the court on February1 this year against the IAS officer, arraigning him as the first accused in the case. The court has issued notice to him as per section 209 of the CrPC.

Section 209 deals with transferring of a case to a Sessions court when an offence is triable exclusively by it.

In this case, the court had, after considering the charge sheet, observed that Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) would be chargeable against the IAS officer and it was triable by a sessions court.

Section 304 deals with punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Before transferring the case, the lower court needs tocomplete certain procedural formalities and those were delayed due to his failure to appear before the court thrice.

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.

Wafa secures bail

Meanwhile, Wafa, a friend of Sriram who is the second accused, appeared before the court on Thursday and secured bail on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of two persons with the same amount.

At the time of the accident, Sriram was at the wheel of the car that killed Basheer. Wafa also was present in the vehicle, which is registered in her name. After being placed under suspension in connection with the accident, Sriram was reinstated in service as Deputy Secretary in Health Services. Even though he was present in the state capital all the time, the IAS officer had not appeared before the court in the city, prompting it to issue the ultimatum.

Earlier, on February 24 this year, the magistrate court had handed over copies of the charge-sheet to the lawyers representing the accused. The magistrate court had summoned the accused to appear before it as part of the procedures under the Section 209 of the Criminal Procedure Code for shifting the trial to a sessions court. The court, while approving the charge-sheet filed by the special investigation team on March 3, had directed it to present both accused.

Meanwhile, the court also observed that prima facie, the culpable homicide charge under Section 304 (II) prevailed against Sriram. The observation was made after examining the charge-sheet, statements of witnesses, medical examination report and forensic reports. As the charge invites a sentence of up to 10 years’ imprisonment and fine, further trials have to be conducted in a sessions court.