VIJAYAWADA: In what could be a major turn in the re-investigation of the sensational murder case of B-Pharmacy student Ayesha Meera, who was found killed in her hostel room at Ibrahimpatnam on the intervening night of December 26 and 27 in 2007, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials are going to perform re-postmortem on the remains of Ayesha’s body to check whether the DNA samples and the report preserved in the Hyderabad’s Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) are related to Ayesha or not.
In this regard, a team of CBI officials visited the house of Ayesha’s parents in Tenali of Guntur district two months ago and collected the blood samples of her mother Shamshad Begum and father Iqbal Pasha and sent them to FSL. The CBI officials further took the consent of both Shamshad Begum and Iqbal Pasha for conducting re-postmortem on remains of Ayesha’s body which was buried a decade ago to compare Ayesha’s DNA with theirs.
Accepting their proposal, Ayesha’s parents said they are ready to undergo any test as part of the investigation process. The CBI has decided to compare Ayesha’s DNA with those of her parents following the destruction of physical evidence pertaining to the case preserved in the Vijayawada local court. “We want to verify to ascertain whether the samples collected and the DNA report prepared at the time of the incident actually belong to Ayesha’s or not.
We have collected the blood samples from her parents. Once the report is out, we will continue our investigation by conducting re-postmortem on Ayesha’s body,” said a senior CBI official on condition of anonymity. The CBI, which started their investigation in January this year in order to bring the logical conclusion to the murder case, is leaving no stone unturned in investigating it from all possible angles. In December last, the bench of Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice SV Bhatt passed the order in respect of a petition filed by Syed Iqbal Basha and Shamshad Begum, the parents of Ayesha, seeking re-investigation into the case.
Unlike the previous investigation agencies such as Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by then DGP N Sambasiva Rao, CBI officials started their investigation by filing two FIRs - one on Ayesha’s murder incident and the other on the Mahila Sessions court staff for destroying the evidence. CBI officials welcomed the public also to share information about the incident.
Later, the CBI officials interrogated Pidathala Satyam Babu, who was acquitted in the case, prime suspect Koneru Satish (grandson of former minister Koneru Ranga Rao), hostel warden Inampudi Padma and her husband Siva Ramakrishna and police officials who participated in the investigation at that time and other suspects.
During the process, CBI officials hit a roadblock when Muslim heads objected to re-postmortem on Ayesha’s body. But, Ayesha’s parents convinced them saying it is the only option left for them to identify the accused in their daughter’s murder case. “We have faith in CBI. We are not interested in meeting political leaders,” said Ayesha’s mother Shamshad Begum. Besides, it is learned that CBI officials are going to file a petition in High Court seeking its permission to conduct a narco-analysis test on the seven suspects named by Ayesha’s mother.