Thiruvananthapuram: Two weeks after Kerala IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman's alleged drunk driving killed journalist K M Basheer in Thiruvananthapuram, the Kerala Police – the investigating agency - has blamed Basheer's colleague for delaying the medical test.
The police report – submitted to the local court in Thiruvananthapuram – stated that Sriram's blood test was delayed due to the stubborn stand taken by Basheer's colleague, Saifuddin Haji.
Basheer was a journalist at Siraj, a daily Malayalam newspaper. He was killed when Sriram rammed the car into Basheer's bike in the early hours of August 3.
The Kerala Police has been drawing flak for lapses in the investigation, including the nine-hour delay in collecting Sriram's blood sample. The blood test eventually returned negative for alcohol content. This helped Sriram get a bail from a local court, which was later ratified by the Kerala High Court. Sriram was accompanied by his friend Wafa Firoze – who owns the car - at the time of the accident.
Saifuddin Haji refuted the police statement. He said the police has not collected his statement so far. “This is another ploy to scuttle the investigation,” he said on Sunday.
According to the police report, Saifuddin insisted that he would testify only after the police collected Wafa's blood sample. This delayed Sriram's blood sample collection, the report stated.
Saifuddin demanded probe to locate Basheer's phone which had gone missing after the accident. “Someone had reportedly used it one hour later. Basheer's phone is a crucial evidence in the case,” he said.
High Court slams police
On Tuesday, the Kerala High Court slammed the police for its 'shoddy' investigation after it made food delivery executive, Benson, as the prime witness in the case.
Benson apparently told police that he had seen the accident and Sriram was behind the wheel.
High Court Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan said the court cannot depend on eyewitness statement alone in a drunk drive case. “The court can rely on blood test and breath analyser test results,” he observed while cancelling the government's plea to cancel Sriram's bail.
When the government pleader stated that the doctor at the general hospital refused to collect Sriram's blood sample, the court said police could have gone for breath analyser test.
