Chandrababu to order reinvestigation in Ayesha murder case

Hyderabad, April.13: The Andhra Pradesh Government is likely to order the police to re-open and re-investigate the sensational Ayesha Meera murder case in the wake of the acquittal of the alleged accused Satyam Babu recently.

The High Court recently acquitted Satyam Babu of the murder charge of the 19-year old B. Pharm student of Nimrah College, whose body was found in her hostel in Ibrahimpatnam near Vijayawada on December 27, 2007. Her naked body was recovered from the bathroom. The murder created a sensation in the then undivided Andhra Pradesh with allegations of involvement of some influential persons with political influence. Soon after the murder came to light, the needle of suspicion was immediately on Koneru Satish, local gram panchayat sarpanh and grandson of then minister Koneru Ranga Rao. Another suspect was Congress leader C. Madhava Rao, president of the local mandal parishad.

However, with many twists and turns taking place in the police investigation dragging on for quite some time, Satyam Babu was arrested on August 17, 2008 and convicted on September 29, 2010. Interestingly, mother of the murdered girl proclaimed that Satyam Babu was not involved in the murder of her daughter and alleged that the real culprits were going scot free.

Satyam Babu moved an appeal before the High Court on October 28, 2010 and was acquitted on March 31, 2017 after he languished in the jail for over eight years. Consequent to the acquittal of Satyam Babu, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu at a high-level meeting of police officials, including the DGP and Intelligence Chief, advised the police to seek legal opinion about reinvestigating the murder case. He had openly said if the High Court gives permission, the case would be reinvestigated.

Senior police officials, including the DGP on Thursday discussed the matter and the ways and means of proceeding further after seeking the required legal opinion in the case and commence an inquiry. It may be mentioned here that Chandrababu Naidu, who was then the Leader of the Opposition in the undivided AP had demanded a CBI inquiry. He had even said during the election campaign in 2009 that if he came back to power he would order for a reinvestigation of the case.