The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team probing the murder case of B Pharma student Ayesha Meera that took place 12 years ago, exhumed the remains of the body of the victim and are conducting re-postmortem on Saturday.
A team of 8 officials including forensic experts from Hyderabad led by CBI SP Vimala Aditya (Visakhapatnam) and inspector Srinivasa Rao arrived at the burial ground in Chenchupeta of Tenali town in Guntur district at around 6 a.m. However, due to early morning fog, they could not exhume remains of the body for re-postmortem.
At 9 a.m in the presence of Tenali MRO Ravi Babu, CBI officials exhumed the body to take the samples as forensic evidence. The help of the people who were engaged for the burial of Ayesha Meera 12 years ago was taken to exhume the remains of the body. The CBI took the consent of the family members to exhume the remains of the body.
Following the directions of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in December 2018, the CBI took over the investigation into the murder of Ayesha Meera. On December 27, 2007, Ayesha Meera, a native of Tenali town was found murdered in her hostel with multiple stab injuries.
The murder case took up several twists and turns with the police investigating the case accused of siding with the kin of some prominent politicians involved in the case. As part of their investigation, P Satyam Babu was arrested and the trial court convicted him in the case and sentenced life imprisonment. However, he was acquitted by the High Court in 2017. After one and a half year, the CBI took over the case.
Reacting on the latest development, Ayesha Meera’s mother Shamshad Begum, who along with her husband has been waging a relentless battled to get justice done, said they will cooperate with CBI. “We are not sure if Justice will be done or not, but we will cooperate. Our religious elders were against the exhuming the remains of the body, but we defied them for the sake of cooperating with Law,”
A teacher by profession, she said the government should consider taking up Ayesha Meera murder case as the first case under the Andhra Pradesh Disha Act, under which a case has to be investigated and the guilty convicted in 21 days time. She said it is time, all those people including some in the ruling party, who are now legislators, who supported her in the past to take up the issue on the floor of the Assembly.