VIJAYAWADA: Stung by the Hyderabad High Court verdict in the Ayesha Meera murder case, the State police have returned to scrutinise point by point, loopholes in the prosecution pointed out by the two-member Bench, which acquitted main accused, P Satyam Babu.
It even directed the State government to take action against officials involved in the investigation for allegedly manipulating evidence.
The court, in its 82-page judgment, wondered how Satyam Babu, who is just 5ft 5 inches tall, could sneak into the hostel room where Ayesha was asleep on Dec 2007.
It pointed out that for him to sneak in, he had to scale the compound wall first, climb a toilet in the compound and then, from its rooftop jump across about eight ft and latch on to the parapet wall of the first floor, which is about 6.5 ft high.
The Bench felt an ordinary man of Satyam Babu's stature could not have possibly pulled it off as it requires “superman's effort”.
Top officials of the police department, who are studying the verdict by comparing it with the judgment of the Mahila Court in 2010, deputed an inspector rank officer to go to the hostel building in Ibrahimpatnam and check whether such a stunt was possible.
Ibrahimpatnam inspector D Chavan, sources told the New Indian Express, accordingly went to the building and easily climbed the washroom and from there, to the first floor. The sources said if the inspector, aged around 50, could do it, the task would have been simple for a young Satyam Babu.
The inspector's effort was video graphed and circulated on social media. It hardly took a minute for Chavan to reach the first floor.
The prosecution had argued in court that Satyam Babu went to the second floor with an intention to rape a girl. After seeing Ayesha Meera asleep, he feared she could raise an alarm if he tried to outrage her modesty. They said he exited the same way, picked up a chutney pounder from a nearby house and then returned to her room.
He then entered her room and clobbered her to death with the chutney pounder. Later, he dragged her to the toilet, which was about 60 feet away from her room, where he allegedly raped her. He then escaped and disposed the chutney pounder into the bushes.
The idea of making an inspector climb the walls struck when top officials of the police department, including intelligence chief AB Venkateswara Rao, CID chief Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao and Vijayawada Police commissioner Gautam Sawang, reportedly discussed the judgment recently.
Though the government has not decided whether it should go in for an appeal against the High Court judgment or reopen the case, the police are trying to build a strong case to present to the government seeking a decision in favour of appeal.
Sources said the police are very confident of proving that Satyam Babu is the culprit, and are blaming the prosecution for not effectively arguing the case
despite clinching evidence against him.
The officials, with the help of lawyers, are trying to plug the loopholes in the prosecution's case, sources said.
Sources also said the police are examining the High Court's observation that absence of injuries on the victim’s body indicate no rape was committed at all.
The police officials say if Ayesha Meera was raped after her death, there would obviously be no injuries, and believe this could be brought up to support their stance that Ayesha was murdered and then raped.