ALAPPUZHA (Kerala): Kerala PWD Minister G Sudhakaran, known for making controversial statements, on Sunday criticised IAS and IPS officials, saying there were many people like arrested IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman in the civil service.
Venkitaraman was arrested Saturday after a car he was driving in an allegedly inebriated condition fatally knocked down a journalist in Thiruvananthapuram.
"I had said earlier also that there are similar type of people (who drink and drive in IAS and IPS). They consider themselves as God. They are human beings," Sudhakaran told reporters here in response to queries regarding the accident involving the civil service officer.
Observing that one should not have a notion that the character of a person would improve if he cleared IAS examination, the minister said, "It is only an exam."
The IAS officer, who was allegedly drunk, rammed his car into a bike, killing K M Basheer, bureau chief of a vernacular daily.
The accident occurred at 1 am in the intervening night of Friday and Saturday when Venkitaraman was returning from a party with a lady in the passenger seat.
The minister had attacked the civil service officials in the past also.
Addressing a programme in Alappuzha in 2017, Sudhakaran had reportedly said many IAS officers were "mentally unstable."
Earlier this year, he had attacked the Sabarimala temple's Tantri (chief priest), calling him a "Brahmin monster" for conducting a 'purification' ceremony after two women in the menstrual age group entered the shrine.