12 years after rape and murder, CBI exhumes body of pharma student

Vijayawada: After 12 years of the rape and murder case, a team of forensic doctors of Gandhi and Osmania general hospital exhumed the skeletal remains of the body of pharma student of a Ibrahimpatnam college from a graveyard in Tenali.

Central Bureau of Investigation special team along with forensic doctors, visited the Chenchupet graveyard on Saturday morning and conducted the re-postmortem examination. The 17-year-old pharma student was raped and murdered on December 27 in 2007.

A CBI official, part of the investigation team told Newsmeter, "We have reached Tenali and started exhumation work. The Vijayawada Mahila court has issued orders for exhuming the body. There are several inconsistencies in the previous autopsy report. The report says that there are head injuries and the accused may have hit her with a boulder and killed. The photograph of the victim shows no injury on the head. To verify these inconsistencies, we have asked the court permission. The court has granted permission and based on which we are exhuming the body."

The mother of the rape victim told media at Vijayawada, "On May 30 CBI officials took blood samples from us for DNA fingerprinting. Later they asked us to give our consent for re-postmortem examination. We have told them we would speak to our religious leaders. Our religious leaders were against exhuming the body. We have informed the CBI the same. CBI then went to court and got an order for exhuming the body. We don't have any objection for this."

She added, "We have lost faith in police, political and judiciary systems. If CBI finds out real culprits behind the rape and murder of my daughter, the trust in the system will be restored. CBI shall not succumb to any pressures and nab the criminals."

The 17-year-old student was found murdered in the bathroom of her hostel on December 27, 2007, night with multiple stab injuries. The sensational murder case probe took several twists and turns with the police facing allegations of bias to save the kin of some prominent politicians involved in the crime.

Case took multiple twists

The pharma student's body was found with her hands tied up in Sri Durga hostel at Ibrahimpatnam. The forensic doctors of GGH Vijayawada who conducted autopsy then and preserved viscera, vaginal swabs and smears. They were sent then to APFSL.

VIP's sons role suspected

Police arrested P Satyama Babu of Annasagaram village in Nandigama in the case on July 2008, and FSL gave a report stating that his DNA profile matched with the DNA of semen found at the scene on the victim. Vijayawada Mahila court convicted Satyam and HC acquitted him in March 2017.

In January 2018 HC ordered for re-investigation following public interest litigation. CBI stepped into the case and questioned several suspects like former Deputy Chief Minister Koneru Ranga Rao's kin Koneru Rajesh and others in the case.

Koneru Sateesh, the grandson of the then Municipal Administration minister Koneru Ranga Rao, was one of the suspected in the murder case.