Ayesha Meera case: Parents demand CBI enquiry, police mull questioning Satyam Babu again

A day after the Andhra Pradesh government announced that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) would probe the brutal murder of 17-year-old Ayesha Meera, that occurred in 2007, the girl's parents expressed displeasure at the move. Stating that they had demanded a CBI enquiry, they wondered why the state felt that an SIT was sufficient to probe the case. “We submitted representations to the Chief Minister, the Home Minister and the National Women Commission seeking an inquiry into the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). But the government formed an SIT, which will be of no use. There are chances of political leaders influencing the local police, who will book another youth like Satyam Babu. The fresh investigation should be done under the supervision of the Hyderabad High Court,”  Ayesha’s mother, Shamshad Begum, told media persons. Ayesha Meera, a 17-year-old B pharmacy student was raped and murdered on December 27, 2007. She was stabbed to death at her hostel at Ibrahimpatnam in Vijayawada. Her naked body was discovered outside the toilet on the second floor of the hostel. Ayesha’s parents had maintained all along that chief accused, Satyam Babu, was an innocent person, and was being framed by the police. They alleged that Ayesha was killed by a politician’s son and that it was Koneru Satish, grandson of former Deputy CM Koneru Ranga Rao, who was the culprit. Despite this, Satyam Babu was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Vijayawada women’s special sessions court on September 29, 2010. Satyam Babu spent almost eight years in jail, for a crime which he didn’t commit. On March 31, 2017, the Hyderabad Court acquitted Satyam Babu of the charges. The state has formed an SIT one week after the HC asked the government to explain what action it had taken so far against the errant police officers in the case.  However, Vijayawada police commissioner D Gautam Sawang told reporters on Saturday, that Satyam Babu could be called for inquiry again, as the case was being re-opened. In response, Satyam Babu told reporters in Vijayawada that the police had dragged his name into this case, and he would emerge innocent, even after the re-investigation.  Speaking to TOI, Vemulapati Pattabhi, Satyam Babu’s lawyer said, "The HC has found fault with the police officers who were involved in this case, who were all from the Vijayawada police commissionerate. It is not proper to have a Vijayawada top cop in the supervising role of the case.”