Re-probe Ayesha murder: HC

Hyderabad: The High Court at Hyderabad on Friday directed re-investigation of the sensational murder of B Pharmacy student Ayesha Meera by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Andhra Pradesh government. It also directed the state government not to transfer any of the members of SIT without taking prior permission of the court and to provide all facilities for carrying out the investigation.

The division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice J Uma Devi delivered the judgment on Friday while dealing with two public interest litigations filed in this regard.

One petition was filed jointly by retired Professor Rama S Melkote of Osmania University, journalist K Sajaya and social activist Sandhya Rani seeking re-investigation in view of the High Court's earlier finding of declaring the convict Satyam Babu as innocent. This PIL has been disposed of by this judgment while the PIL filed by the parents of Ayesha Meera, Shamshad Begum and Syed Iqbal seeking monitoring by the court of their child's murder case. This petition has been kept live by the bench.

The division bench had heard these petitions in a detailed manner and had reserved for orders in September last year. In the judgment, the court had directed the SIT to complete the investigation with utmost urgency and to keep the court updated about the progress of the investigation. It asked the SIT to file a status report before the court on April 20. 

It also wanted it to inform the court if any extraneous pressures are brought on it from outside persons. It also directed the government to initiate action against the officials responsible for previous tardy investigation into the case.