In a landmark judgement, the Hyderabad High Court on 31 March acquitted the accused arrested in the Ayesha Murder Case. He has also been awarded Rs 1 lakh compensation for spending eight years in jail. The police was reprimanded for putting the accused in the jail without any proper evidence to show his involvement in this rape and murder case
Ayesha Meera Rape Case
Years before when people battled the water cannons in the chilling weather of Delhi to demand justice for Jyoti Singh Pandey, another rape case in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, in 2007 had captured the media. It was the Ayesha Meera murder-rape case. Ayesha Meera was a 19-year-old from Tenali, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, studying B.Pharmacy at the Nimra Engineering College living in a private hospital and murdered atrociously on 26 December 2007.
Ayesha’s body was recovered from the bathroom of a hotel on December 27 in the early hours. Her body was soaked in the blood, with legs and hands tied to the tap and an iron rod. Her dress was torn. She was into the pool of blood, and it was evident that her hand was banged on the wall. She was brutally raped. After the autopsy, it was clear that she was raped alive and the accused continued to rape her even after killing her.
Ayesha’s relatives and many local representatives gathered and vehemently protested outside the hostel gates questioning the security of the hostel.
The Police found a love letter written by the killer, a left foot print in her room and a handwritten note by ‘Chirutha’ (leopard) in Telugu.
Dubiousness of Police Claims
The claims of police were quite sceptical. They announced a wayward youth Anjaneyulu as an accused in the murder case after they mercilessly tortured him in Hyderabad. Later, the enquiries revealed that he was framed as a scapegoat and the police could not give any evidence, and he was let off.
Following the release of Anjaneyulu, two other innocent youth were arrested but were later released on behest of National Human Rights Commission. The dubiousness of the Police officials was later exposed. To balance the matter, they framed another person, Laddu Singh, who is a low profile Rowdy Sheeter accused several times of eve-teasing. After various oppositions of different quarters for fair investigations, he was let off.
With pressure from so many quarters, the police nabbed Satyam Babu, a fatherless, poor man from a downtrodden community. The police have been alleged to have framed a helpless guy who couldn’t prove himself innocent. He cannot walk on his own, or even stand. Concerns are being poured saying that how come a handicapped person climbed two flights of stairs and crossed the security mesh made of iron and killed the girl so mercilessly.
Eyeing one of the culprits, a polygraphic test was also conducted on K. Satish, grandson of then Municipal Administration Minister. The reports revealed that Satish had lied to the police on two occasions.
Judicial Judgements
The Women’s Special Sessions court awarded 14 years jail term to Satyam Babu under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for murder and ten years of imprisonment under section 376 of IPC. He was also ordered to pay Rs 1,000 as fine.
The Logical Indian is appalled how an innocent man was put through the plight of serving a jail term for eight years. Though the man has been acquitted, there’s a popular phrase that “justice delayed is justice denied”. He got punished for the crime he never committed. Also, we urge the authority to look for more clarity in the turning of events.
Points to ponder Ayesha was raped and murdered in a ladies hostel which was guarded by a security person, and a warden was available all the time. She had two other room mates who were present on that fateful day but did not hear any noise. Everybody was clueless, and there were no traces as such, and it is also being alleged that evidence were all wiped off clearly before cops reached the spot. Didn’t Ayesha scream and called out for help while being raped? What was the love letter about?
