VIJAYAWADA: Four months after Satyam Babu was acquitted of murdering B Pharmacy student Ayesha Meera at her hostel in Ibrahimpatnam near here in December 2007, the state government on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team to reopen the case and identify her killer even as the victim’s parents remained dissatisfied as they wanted the case referred to the CBI.The SIT will be headed by an officer of the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police under the supervision of the Commissioner of Police, Vijayawada who is an Additional Director General Rank officer. The SIT will have a woman officer also since the case related to the murder of a girl. Ayesha Meera (19), of Tenali in Guntur district, was a student of Nimrah College in Ibrahimpatnam was found dead in a pool of blood in the bathroom of Sri Durga Ladies’ Hostel in Ibrahimpatnam.
After the court acquitted Satyam Babu of the murder charges, police and government could not decide whether to go in for an appeal on High Court’s order or investigate the case afresh since the responsibility lay on the police department to find out who the actual killer was if Satyam Babu was not the culpirt.
Ayesha Meera’s parents — Shamshad Begum and Sayyad Iqbal Basha said they would not accept investigation by SIT as it would be done by the same police officers and the end result would be the same. “We have no trust in the state police. We wanted a court monitored CBI probe into the murder. We made an appeal to this effect to the President, Prime Minister, National Women’s Commission and AP HC,” Ayesha’s mother said.
Her parents said they have made up their mind to knock on the doors of the HC for a direction to the government to refer the case to the CBI. When contacted, Deputy CM N China Rajappa, who is also Home minister, said he wanted Ayesha’s parents to have faith in newly formed SIT. He said, “Government will take all steps to nab the actual culprits.”Interestingly, the government’s decision to constitute a SIT came after the High Court bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan, on Tuesday which directed the state government to submit a report on action taken on the Ayesha Meera case by August 8.
The bench was dealing with a PIL filed by Dr Rama Melkote and two others seeking a directive to the government to initiate a court monitored re-investigation. The petitioners also sought initiation of proceedings against the erring officers, who misled the probe.The court asked state government whether the names of the police officers who misled the investigation of the murder have been identified, if yes it wanted to know what action had been taken. According to Shamshad Begum, the investigation officers of her daughter’s murder case were: The then Crime Investigation Department (CID) Inspector General Krishnam Raju, Vijayawada Police Commissioners CV Anand and KV Rajendranath Reddy supervised the investigation. The investigation, according to her, was done by the then Assistant Commissioners of Police Prakash Rao and L Vijay Kumar and the then Ibrahimpatnam inspector Murali Mohan and the then Sub-Inspector Srinivas.
A division bench of the High Court comprising Justice CV Nagarjuna Reddy and Justice MSK Jaiswal, while acquitting Satyam Babu of the charges, reprimanded the police officers and directed disciplinary action against them for showing an innocent person as an accused in the case.