The mortal remains of KM Basheer, the Thiruvananthapuram bureau chief of Siraj newspaper, was brought to the city’s Press Club at around 2:45 pm for his colleagues and other journalists to pay their final respects. Among the notable persons who arrived at the Press Club to pay homage to Basheer was Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who had also expressed his condolences on social media after hearing the news of Basheer’s death.
Following Basheer’s death, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) chairperson Antony Dominic, urged the state Police Chief Loknath Behera to look into the complaint alleging that officers of the Museum Police Station did not test the blood samples of Sriram IAS despite prima facie evidence that the IAS officer had driven the car in an inebriated state.
The Commission also directed the city Police Commissioner to start the probe and has ordered the DGP and Commissioner to submit a report within the next 10 days. The SHRC issued these orders after receiving a complaint from the Loktantric Yuva Janatadal National President Salim Madavur.
According to Siraj newspaper, it was only last week that Kerala Media Academy honoured Basheer for his noteworthy contribution to the Assembly media coverage.
The 35-year old journalist died early Saturday morning, after a car which was being driven by Survey Director Sriram IAS rammed into his bike near the museum public office in Thiruvananthapuram at 1 am.
Basheer is survived by his wife Jaseela and two children.