A young IAS officer suspended on the charge of drink-driving and fatally injuring a journalist seven months ago has been reinstated and appointed the state’s nodal health official to fight the coronavirus, causing widespread resentment.

Kochi-born Sriram Venkitaraman, 33, who was director of survey and land records when his car knocked down and killed senior journalist K.M. Basheer, has now joined Kerala’s health department as a joint secretary with the unique designation of special officer, Covid-19 cell.

He, however, is facing trial on charges that include culpable homicide not amounting to murder, rash and negligent driving, drink-driving and destroying evidence.

Sriram allegedly lied to police, tried to deflect the blame to a woman friend and co-occupant of the car, and delayed the collection of his blood sample.

What seem to have counted with the state government are his MBBS degree, which he had earned before turning civil servant, and the master’s degree in public health he acquired from the University of Harvard.

Not everyone is impressed, however, in a state that has largely been united in the battle against the pandemic so far and allowed objectivity to prevail over any possible emotional fault lines.

“The government must revoke the decision and keep him in suspension till the trial is over. If the state requires a public health expert to deal with the coronavirus threat, it can use the services of experts of international repute,” said K.P. Reji, president of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists.

“We will resist the move in all possible ways. Injustice to Basheer will not be tolerated.”

Going by medical records, Sriram was till recently suffering from retrograde amnesia — a form of memory loss, often temporary, that may have been caused by the trauma of the accident.

Sources said the bureaucrat had indeed cited the memory loss to defend himself against the charges of lying to the police after the accident.

It’s unclear whether the state government had received any medical report saying Sriram had been completely cured before appointing him to the crucial post on Friday. The state cabinet had approved the revocation of his suspension on Wednesday.

The accident that killed Basheer, bureau chief of the Siraj newspaper, had occurred in Thiruvananthapuram close to midnight on August 3 last year.

Sriram was returning from a party with his friend Wafa Firoz in the passenger seat. His Volkswagen Venta collided with Basheer’s motorbike, killing him on the spot.

Ironically, it was the same day that an impressive speech on road safety that Sriram had delivered at an event organised by the Kerala police and transport departments had gone viral.

The chargesheet against Sriram says he was heavily drunk and would have been clocking above 100km an hour when his car took the turn near the Museum Junction. The legal speed limit in the tony neighbourhood, adjoining the Raj Bhavan, is 50km per hour.

Reports said that Sriram had initially refused to cooperate and the police, on learning who he was, didn’t insist. It was after continued media focus on the subject that he was arrested and booked under serious charges, and the case was handed over to the crime branch.

According to the chargesheet: “He (Sriram) had deliberately tried to destroy evidence. Sriram resisted attempts by a duty nurse to collect his blood sample... (and) intentionally delayed the proceedings to dilute the presence of alcohol in his blood.”

Lacking a medical certificate that Sriram was over the alcohol limit at the time of the collision, the investigators have had to rely on the testimonies of doctors, first responders, police officers and witnesses.

Wafa too confirmed before a magistrate under oath that Sriram had drunk alcohol that night and that he was a regular drinker. The civil servant had allegedly told the police he was a teetotaller.

The police say that Sriram had tried to mislead the investigation by saying Wafa had been at the wheel at the time of the accident.

At the local government hospital where he was treated initially, Sriram had insisted that he be referred for specialist care at a particular private hospital where many of his former MBBS batch mates work, reports say.

Although the doctors at the government hospital had marked his injuries as minimal, they partially accepted his request and referred him to the nearby Government Medical College and Hospital. But Sriram got himself admitted to his preferred private hospital.

The 66-page chargesheet names Wafa as the second accused. She has been charged with abetment for allowing Sriram to drive the car despite her belief that he was drunk.

Testimonies of over 100 witnesses have been recorded and 84 pieces of material evidence cited. The court is reportedly preparing to initiate the trial.