The Fourth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Vijayawada on Friday dismissed a petition filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) reinvestigating the controversial Ayesha Meera murder case, that sought permission to conduct a narco-analysis test on the suspects in the case.
Ayesha Meera, a 17-year-old pharmacy student from Vijayawada, was brutally killed on December 27, 2007. Her body was found outside the toilet on the second floor of the Sri Durga Ladies Hostel in Ibrahimpatnam, where she was staying.
The SIT said that it wanted to conduct tests on the hostel warden, Inampudi Padma, her husband Siva Ramakrishna, Ayesha’s roommates Sowmya and K Kavitha, and prime accused Koneru Satish Babu, Abburi Ganesh and Chintha Pawan Kumar.
Koneru Satish is the grandson of former Congress minister Koneru Ranga Rao.
According to media reports, the SIT wanted to conduct a narcoanalysis test and Brain Electrical Oscillating Signature Profiling Test (BEOSP) and send the results to a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Gujarat.
However, only the hostel warden and her husband have agreed to the tests so far, after the Hyderabad High Court quelled their fears about their health being adversely affected if they take the test.
The rest of the accused, though promising to cooperate with the investigation, did not give their consent.
While the court dismissed the SIT’s permission to conduct tests on all seven suspects, the team is hoping to at least conduct tests on the hostel warden and her husband.
Background
In August 2008, almost a year after Ayesha was killed and after the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) took up the case, the police arrested Satyam Babu.
Satyam Babu was arrested in a cell phone robbery case on August 17 that year and the police claimed that he had confessed to Ayesha’s murder during interrogation.
In 2010, the Mahila Sessions Court in Vijayawada sentenced him to life imprisonment for Ayesha’s rape and murder.
Ayesha’s parents had earlier alleged that relatives of minister Koneru Ranga Rao were involved in the murder and that the police had pinned the crime on Satyam Babu to misdirect the investigation.
In April 2017, Satyam Babu was acquitted by the Hyderabad High Court. The court also ordered action to be taken against the police officials who investigated the case.
The government had then decided to re-investigate the case and constituted the SIT.