'Basheer had seen Sriram and Wafa in a suspicious situation, mystery surrounding over not finding the phone'; family files petition in High Court demanding CBI probe

KOCHI: The family of journalist KM Basheer has filed a petition in the High Court demanding a CBI probe into the death of Basheer. In the petition, the family alleged that Basheer was deliberately killed by Sriram Venkitaraman.

The petition was filed by Basheer's brother KM Abdu Rahman. He alleged that Basheer had evidence about Sriram's relationship with Wafa Firoz, the second accused in the case. According to Abdu Rahman, Basheer was returning from the Thiruvananthapuram bureau of the Siraj newspaper when he saw Sriram and Wafa in a suspicious situation near a coffee shop. Basheer soon captured this on his mobile phone. Although Sriram tried to take possession of Basheer's phone, he failed to do so. Following this, Sriram deliberately hit Basheer with his car and killed him. The petition also stated that the police tried to save Sriram.

The petitioner, who pointed out that the current investigation in the case is ineffective, demanded a CBI probe to find out the truth. The police were not even ready to check whether the accused was drunk. Basheer had two mobiles. Only one of these was returned. His Redmi phone is yet to be found. This proves that the police tried to save the accused, the petitioner said.