Thiruvananthapuram: A photo journalist was allegedly manhandled by a section of lawyers in Vanchiyoor Court to prevent him from taking pictures of IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman and his friend Wafa Firoz, the accused in the road accident case that killed scribe K M Basheer in August 2019.
Sivaji, the photographer, alleged manhandling by the lawyers when he clicked pictures of the accused coming out of the court after appearing before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in connection with the case.
When Sivaji captured the pictures of Sriram and Wafa a police official stopped him from taking any further pictures. He added that Wafa expressed uneasiness at being photographed without permission. The lawyers manhandled the photographer following this.
The lawyers allegedly snatched the camera, mobile phone, accreditation cards of the photo journalist and forced him to delete the photographs he had clicked.
The photographer was a colleague of the deceased journalist.
Suresh Vellimangalam, an office-bearer of the Kerala Union of Working Journalist (KUWJ), Thiruvananthapuram unit, too, alleged that the lawyers hurled abusive words at him when was with Sivaji. Both alleged that the police did not intervene to stop the lawyers.
There was no immediate response from the bar association.
Condemning the incident, the KUWJ said a complaint against the lawyers has been lodged with the police.
The journalists were targeted without any provocation, said a member of the KUWJ who sought the intervention of the Chief Minister's office.
Next hearing on September 29
Though the accused were summoned three times earlier, the accused did not present themselves to the court despite being in the locality. Sriram and Wafa presented themselves to the court on Monday after a final warning was issued by the court.
The next hearing of the case will occur on September 29.
Sriram was arrested after the car driven by him allegedly in an inebriated condition fatally knocked down 35 -year-old Basheer in 2019. The car was owned by Firoz who was in the vehicle at the time of the accident.
The State government suspended the officer immediately after the incident and reinstated in March 2020.
(With PTI inputs.)
