Hyderabad: In Satyam Babu's case, justice was delayed, not denied. Babu, a dalit, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Ayesha Meera rape and murder case of 2007 in Vijayawada. He breathed a sigh of relief on Saturday after the Andhra Pradesh High Court acquitted him of all charges.
The accused's family had appealed in the High court against the order of sessions court in 2010, and it bore fruit in 2017. By then, Babu had lost 8 valuable years of his life in jail, for a crime he never committed.
The High court ordered Satyam Babu's acquittal after no evidence was found against him. The court even directed Andhra Pradesh government to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation and ordered departmental proceedings against officers, who investigated the case in a false manner.
The acquittal of Satyam Babu has also come as a slap in the face of the state police who bungled in the case. They had first tried to show another person as the culprit, but it boomeranged. Eventually, Satyam Babu was shown as the culprit.
Ayesha Meera (17), a first year B Pharmacy student, was raped and murdered in her hostel room on December 27, 2007, and a special sessions court in Vijayawada had awarded 14 years jail to the lone accused in the case under section 302 of IPC for murder and 10 years of rigorous imprisonment under section 376 of IPC for rape on September 29, 2010. In addition, the court ordered Babu to pay a fine of Rs 1,000 or undergo six months jail.
Ayesha's murder had sparked an outrage in the country.
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