By IANS
Hyderabad : The Andhra Pradesh government Tuesday night promised to appoint as police officer anybody providing information on the murderer of a girl student following growing criticism over its failure to crack the two-month-old case.
The state government announced a reward of Rs.500,000 to the person providing information leading to the arrest of the killer and also promised to appoint him as sub-inspector, provided he meets certain conditions.
“We will not only give a reward of Rs.500,000 but if the person giving the information is under the age of 30 years and has minimum qualification, we will relax the government rules to give him the job of sub-inspector of police,” Home Minister K. Jana Reddy announced at a news conference.
Ayesha, a 19-year-old first year student of B. Pharmacy, was raped and murdered on the night of Dec 27 last year in her room at a women’s hostel in Vijayawada city. A letter dropped by the ‘murderer’ near the body stated that the girl was raped and murdered for refusing his request for ‘love.’
Even two months after the incident police failed to identify the guilty. The brutal incident shocked the state and several women’s and students’ organisations took to streets demanding justice for Ayesha’s family.
Ayesha’s parents alleged that police were going slow on the case as it involved some powerful people.
The minister’s announcement came after the issue once again rocked the state assembly. The opposition parties, which suspect the involvement of relatives of a state minister in the incident, pulled up the government for its failure to bring the guilty to book.
Earlier this month, the state government handed over investigations to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Police have so far interrogated about 50 people, including the owner of the private hostel and a relative of Minister for Municipal Administration Koneru Ranga Rao. Polygraph and DNA tests were also conducted on some of the suspects but the police failed to make any progress.