THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sriram Venkataraman is the first IAS officer in the state to go behind bars in the history of Kerala. Earlier, two former DGP’s - TV Madhusudhanan and Jayaram Padikkal - went behind bars in the custodial torture and subsequent death of P Rajan, a student of Regional Engineering College, Kozhikode.
Inspector General of Police (Rtd) K Lakshmana was convicted in the case related to the killing of Naxalite leader Varghese in Wayanad following the deposition of police constable Ramachandran Nair who confessed to having gunned down Varghese. A former Chief secretary told Express there were instances of public and media ire when IAS officer T O Sooraj was accused of graft. However, it is for the first time an IAS officer is being put behind bars in a case of homicide, he said.
According to a senior IPS officer, “A civil service officer has to comply with the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules 1964. Rule 3 of it lists some 21 prerequisites for an officer and these include refraining from doing anything which is or may be contrary to any law.”
However another senior officer said, “It can’t be conclusively stated that this is the first instance of a Kerala cadre IAS officer going behind bars.” His bail application is coming up for hearing on Monday.