THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There was enormous pressure from political parties and media to ‘frame’ Sriram Venkataraman in the accident case, his counsel told the court on Monday. In an argument that could favour the IAS officer in his bail application, the counsel pointed out that though Sriram has been under police custody for three days, cops could not verify his fingerprints with that found on the car steering.
Moving his bail plea, the counsel further pointed out the blood test could not find presence of alcohol. Following this, the Judicial First Class Magistrate postponed the hearing of the petition to Tuesday. The counsel argued the IAS officer has been a law-abiding citizen.
To support the conspiracy theory, he argued that section 304 of IPC was added in the case following media pressure. With the blood test turning negative, Sriram is likely to obtain bail. He is now at the trauma care unit of Medical College Hospital. The IAS officer was initially charged with IPC 304 A (causing death by negligence). Later IPC 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) was added.
Custody sought
The police team probing the case also filed a petition before the court seeking Sriram’s custody for further interrogation and evidence collection. The petition will be considered on Tuesday.