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Less than three years after the murder of Miss. Ayesha Meera on 27.12.2007, Sri Satyam Babu was sentenced to life imprisonment on 29.09.2010 for the offences of rape and murder. He suffered incarceration for more than six and half years thereafter, till he was acquitted and let free by the Division Bench of this Court by its judgment in Criminal Appeal No.1518 of 2010 dated 31.03.2017. All that Shri Satyam Babu, who was falsely accused of having committed this ghastly and heinous crime, has so far been compensated, for the illegal deprivation of his liberty for the past several years, is Rs.1.00 Lakh which the Division Bench had directed the State to pay him.

The petitioners in W.P. No.25434 of 2017 are the parents of Miss. Ayesha Meera, a student of B. Pharmacy, who was, during the relevant period, staying in Sree Durga Ladies Hostel, Ibrahimpatnam, Vijayawada. She was dropped at the said hostel on 26.12.2017 by her mother and, on the intervening night of 26/27.12.2017, suffered a gruesome and a bloody death. According to the prosecution, this young girl aged 17 years was murdered and raped on 27.12.2017 at about 2.00 A.M. The Inspector of Police (P.W-30) who initially took up investigation, inspected the scene of offence and got an observation report drafted. He prepared a rough sketch of the scene of the offence and the entire building, and seized certain material objects. In the inquest held at 12.00 noon on 27.12.2017, P.Ws-1, 2, 4, 7, 13 and another, in their Section 161 CrPC statements, stated that the deceased was raped and murdered on being hit on her head with a blunt and heavy object. The body of the deceased was sent to the Government Hospital, Vijayawada for post-mortem examination. The doctors, who conducted the autopsy, sent the viscera, the viginal swabs and smears, and the pubic hair of the deceased for chemical analysis. Based on the chemical examination report received on 31.01.2008, the medical officers opined that there was recent sexual intercourse, and the death was caused due to head injury.

The investigation was, thereafter, taken up by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Central Zone (P.W-33) who claimed that he came to know that, on 17.08.2008 at 01.00 hours, Sri Satyam Babu was arrested by the Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Nandigama (P.W-31) (near Polytechnic College located on the bypass road, Nandigama) in connection with Crime No.241 of 2008 under Sections 450, 457 and 380 IPC of Nandigama police station and, during interrogation, he voluntarily confessed to have committed the murder and rape of the deceased, on the intervening night of 26/27.12.2007, at Durga Ladies hostel. P.W-33 obtained a Prisoner Transit Warrant on 18.08.2008 from the Court against Sri Satyam Babu, and took him into police custody on 29.08.2008. During investigation, the accused was said to have voluntarily confessed to the rape and murder; and to have admitted to have killed the deceased with a chutney pounder which he had, allegedly, taken from the bushes in the front yard of the house of P.W-10 wherefrom the chutney pounder was recovered.

As a fresh investigation can only be directed in the rarest of rare cases, that too when the unfairness of the investigation pricks its judicial conscience, it is necessary to examine the case of the prosecution, and the observations of the Division Bench in its judgment in Criminal Appeal No.1518 of 2010 dated 31.03.2017, albeit in brief. The case of the prosecution was that P.W-34, who joined as the ACP, West Zone, took up investigation on 29.09.2008 and had a sexual potency test conducted on the accused (Shri Satyam Babu) on 25.10.2008. The prosecution concluded that, on 27.12.2007 at about 2.00 A.M, the accused had intruded into the Sri Durga Ladies Hostel with a sexual urge, and had jumped the compound wall of the building; he reached the roof top of the bathroom located in the front yard of the building, climbed upto the first floor of the hostel building, reached the second floor through the stair case, entered into the room located in the 6th floor, found the deceased sleeping alone on the cot and the remaining inmates sleeping in the adjacent rooms; with an intention to commit the offence of rape on her, and escape from a possible attack by any inmate, the accused went down and brought the chutney pounder from the neighbouring house of P.W- 10 and, with the intention to rape and murder her, he forcibly hit the deceased with a chutney pounder causing grievous head injury. He then lifted her from the cot, brought her to the verandah, dragged her into the bath room located at the south eastern corner of the same floor, removed her clothes, tied her right leg to the water tap with a towel, bent her left leg and raped her; later he came back to her room, pulled out the bag of the deceased, took out two other suitcases and ransacked the articles; he took Rs.500/-, some change, two pens and a pencil from the bag of the deceased, and went back to the bath room; he wrote the English letter H in capital, and the letters Prema Chirutha in Telugu, on the chest of the deceased; he returned and collected the photocopy of a non-judicial stamp paper and a pen from the bag of the deceased, and wrote a letter on the reverse of the stamp paper, addressing the inmates of the ladies hostel in Telugu, requesting them to forgive him for the murder and rape of the accused; he then wrote on the other side of the same paper, on the typed matter, the words Chirutha, Cheran Teja, 143 and love symbols; leaving the document there, he left the scene of the offence with the chutney pounder, got down the same way in which he entered the building, reached the place where he collected the chutney pounder, threw it in the bushes located in the front yard of the house of P.W10; and, thereafter, he went to Ibrahimpatnam Ring Centre, and spent considerable time at the Sealand Tea Stall.