VIJAYAWADA: Stung by the Hyderabad High Court verdict in the Ayesha Meera murder case, the State police have gone back to the drawing room to scrutinise point by point, loopholes in the prosecution pointed out by the two-member bench, which acquitted main accused, P Satyam Babu, and even directed the State government to take action against officials involved in the investigation for allegedly manipulating evidence.
The court, in its 82-page judgement, wondered how could Satyam Babu who is just 5ft 5 inches tall sneak into the hostel, where Ayesha was asleep on the ill-fated day in Dec, 2007. It pointed out that for him to sneak in, he had to scale the compound wall first, climb atop a toilet in the compound and then, from its rooftop fly across a distance of about eight ft and latch on to the parapet wall of the first floor of the hostel, which is about 6.5 ft high. It felt an ordinary man of Satyam Babu’s height and build 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 judgement delivered by the Mahila Court in 2010, deputed an inspector rank officer to go to the hostel building in Ibrahimpatnam and check whether one could actually pull it off. Ibrahimpatnam inspector D Chavan, sources told Express, accordingly went to the building and easily climbed atop the washroom and from there, to the first floor.
The sources said if the inspector, aged around 50, could pull it off, it would not have been difficult for a young Satyam Babu at all.
The inspector’s effort was videographed and circulated on social media. It hardly took a minute for the inspector to reach the first floor. The prosecution had argued in the court that Satyam Babu went to the second floor with an intention to rape a girl.
After seeing Ayesha Meera sleeping in her room, he feared she could raise an alarm if he tried to outrage her modesty and through the same way, he came out of the hostel, picked up a chutney pounder from a nearby house and again went to the first floor and from there, to second floor. Then he entered her room and clobbered her to death with the chutney pounder. Later he dragged her to the toilet which was about 60 ft away from her room where he allegedly raped her. He then escaped, after throwing the chutney pounder into the bushes.
The idea of making an inspector climb the walls came up 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 judgement recently.
Though the government has not taken any decision on whether it should go in for an appeal against the high court judgement or reopen the case, the police are trying to build a strong case to present it to the government seeking a decision in favour of appeal. Sources said the police are very confident of proving that Satyam Babu is indeed the culprit and are blaming the prosecution for not arguing the case effectively despite having clinching evidence against him. The officials, with the help of lawyers, are trying to plug the loopholes in the prosecution’s case.
Sources said the police are also examining the high court’s observation that absence of injuries on the private parts of the victim indicated no rape was committed at all. The police officials say if rape took place after death, there would obviously be no injuries.