Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala bureaucrat Sriram Venkitaraman, who was recently reinstated after his involvement in a fatal drunk-driving accident last year, has been removed from the fact-check team of the state Information and Public Relations Department (PRD).

Additional secretary B S Biju Bhaskar has been given the charge instead. The fact-check team aims to identify fake news.

Sriram is the first accused in the case pertaining to the death of journalist K M Basheer in a drunk-driving accident. The car driven by Sriram had rammed Basheer's bike in Thiruvananthapuram on August 3, 2019, as per the case.

The government had drawn flak over Sriram’s inclusion in the fact-checking panel as the health department's representative.

Journalists too had protested against the decision to put a tainted officer in charge of checking the authenticity of news when the accident case was still at the trial stage.

Sriram, who was suspended from service following the incident, was taken back in March and was posted as the joint secretary at the health department.