The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Andhra Pradesh, probing the murder of B Pharmacy student Ayesha Meera, moved the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday, seeking permission for conducting tests on the seven 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 approached the High Court after a trial court in Vijayawada rejected the police's request, as barring two suspects, everyone refused to give their consent.
The local court then cited Supreme Court orders which stated that no tests could be conducted without consent and dismissed the plea.
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.
Justice N Balayogi of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday reserved his judgment and posted the matter for a future date.
Just last month, Ayesha's parents alleged that her clothes and other such material evidence that were seized from the crime scene, were destroyed during the initial stages of the investigation when the case was being heard by a trial court, to protect the real killers of their daughter, who had political connections.
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.