Thiruvananthapuram : The court on Wednesday rejected Sreeram Venkatesh’s plea to quash case against him in the car crash killing of journalist KM Basheer in 2019. The court clarified the guilty must stand trial. The manslaughter or culpable homicide charges in the case can however be dropped, the court observed.
Trial of the case has been moved to Magistrate Court. The Wednesday ruling asks Venketraman to appear for hearing of the case in Magistrate court scheduled on the 20th. The accused had said to CGM court earlier there was no evidence of drunken driving in the case and that only charges under motor vehicle accident could stick.
Fast and loose : The case dates back to 3 August, 2019. Early at dawn that day, at 1 am, Sreeram Venketesh, was drunk and driving Volkswagen car belonging to his friend Wafa Firoz - who was in the passenger seat at the time of crash.
Speeding like crazy on the Kowdiar stretch, Venketesh hit Basheer’s bike in front of PSC office. Basheer suffered grievous injuries and died up on reaching Medical College.
