HYDERABAD: Raising doubts over the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the rape and murder of B Pharmacy student Ayesha Meera at her hostel in Ibrahimpatnam near Vijayawada in 2007, the victim’s parents on Monday told the Hyderabad High Court that the evidence in the case was destroyed in the lower court even before an appeal was filed by the accused challenging the verdict of the trial court. Objects like clothes and other material of Ayesha, which were collected by the police from the crime scene, were destroyed. The real culprits would be unmasked if the SIT probes to find out the persons behind destroying the evidence, they said.
Advocate Suresh Kumar, appearing for the parents of Ayesha, made these submissions before the division bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice SV Bhatt dealing with petitions filed separately by Syed Iqbal Basha and Shamshad Begum, parents of Ayesha, and Prof Rama S Melkote and two others. The government earlier constituted the SIT headed by Visakhapatnam range DIG Ch Srikanth, and DSPs D Himavathi, Sreelakshmi and Inspector Saheerunnissa Begum of Nunna police station, Krishna district, as its members.
When the matter came up for hearing on Monday, special counsel for Andhra Pradesh Krishna Prakash, appearing for the SIT, submitted a report in a sealed cover regarding the progress made in the ongoing reinvestigation into the Ayesha rape and murder case.
Taking the above submissions into consideration, the bench asked the SIT whether they had sought scrutiny of the material objects (evidence) and the response of the lower court. The bench directed the SIT to find out whether the material objects were destroyed in the lower court as alleged by the victim’s parents and the response of the lower court. The bench ordered the SIT to probe the case in the said direction and to submit report on the progress made further in the case by next date of hearing.
In reply, the State special counsel sought some time for submitting the progress report. The Vijaywada Metropolitan Court refused give permission to the SIT to conduct a narco analysis test on the accused persons named by the victim’s parents. An appeal filed before the High Court against the order of the Vijayawada court is still pending. The SIT needs some more time as the fresh probe is dependent on the previous documents of the case, which are 11 years old, he added.
Considering the plea, the bench adjourned the case hearing by four weeks.In January this year, the bench ordered the SIT to investigate the case afresh and said it would monitor it. The court also asked the SIT to report to it if it faced any outside influence during investigation and ordered the State government to initiate a disciplinary action against the then erring investigation officers who probed the case.
On March 31, 2017, the High Court acquitted Pidthala Satyam Babu who was charged with murdering Ayesha. Satyam Babu’s arrest triggered anger among the public, including the parents of Ayesha, who suspected the role of bigwigs in the murder. It also directed the government to pay ` 1 lakh as costs to Satyam Babu who had spent eight years in prison.
Later, retired Osmania University professor Rama Melkote, journalist K Sajaya and activist V Sandhya Rani filed the PIL seeking court directions to the State authorities to send the erring officials who misled the case investigation before the government constituted apex committee for necessary action. Besides, the victim’s parents filed a writ petition seeking a court monitored SIT probe or to entrust the case to CBI.