VIJAYAWADA: The fresh investigation being conducted by SIT into the brutal murder of 19-year-old B Pharmacy student Ayesha Meera is raising more doubts than hope about its outcome among the parents of the victim and lawyers. The victim’s mother Shamshad Begum and father Syed Iqbal Basha strongly believe that the reinvestigation would lead nowhere because of the involvement of Vijayawada police. They are worried that the entrenched belief among a section of Vijayawada police about the involvement of Pidatala Satyam Babu in the murder of Ayesha, despite the fact that he was acquitted by the High Court of Hyderabad, would influence the course of reinvestigation.
Their allegation that Satyam Babu was framed in the murder under public pressure to close the case proved right when the HC acquitted him and ordered for a fresh probe. From the day one of the constitution of the SIT, Shamshad Begum has been strongly opposing the decision of the then DGP N Sambasiva Rao to include Vijayawada police officials, particulary Machavaram inspector Saherunissa Begum, in the probe team. “No police official from Vijayawada should be included in the SIT. They (Vijayawada police) are the ones who named Satyam Babu as the murderer. If the same police officials are involved in the fresh investigation, there is every chance of them misleading the SIT members,” said Ayesha’s mother Shamshad Begum.
Following the HC order, Sambasiva Rao constituted a four-member special team headed by Vizag Range Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Ch Srikanth and other members of the team include DSPs Sri Lakshmi and Himavathi and Machavaram Circle Inspector Saherunnisa Begum. Ridiculing the SIT’s move to interrogate Satyam Babu and other suspects again, Shamshad Begum said they would get no fresh clues in the case. “During interrogation of Satyam Babu, police officers from Vijayawada can influence the SIT by providing it with previous statements and evidence which erroneously named him as the accused,” Shamshad said.
She also wondered what fresh evidence the police could gather 10 years after the murder. “After seeing reports on news channels on Friday about evidence submitted by the SIT to the court, I was surprised what kind of evidences were gathered from the crime scene after 10 years.It is also noteworthy that human rights activists and some High Court advocates, who are in agreement with the scepticism expressed by Shamshad, filed a PIL requesting the High Court to order a CBI investigation to bring real culprits to book.