- Tuesday, April 22, 2025
The victim’s mother Madhavi Viswanathan told the media that they wanted life imprisonment for the convicts, saying they should suffer what her family went through.
By: Shubham Ghosh
A COURT in Delhi on Wednesday (18) convicted four persons of an organised crime syndicate in connection to the murder of a woman television journalist during a robbery bid at the heart of the national capital more than 15 years ago.
According to the court that convicted them of murder and other offences, charges against them were “duly proved beyond all reasonable doubt”.
In one of the sensational incidents of 2008, Soumya Vishwanathan, who was working with a leading English news channel here, was shot dead early on September 30 on Delhi’s Nelson Mandela Marg while she was returning home from work.
Police had claimed that the motive behind the killing was robbery.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Ravindra Kumar Pandey convicted Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Ajay Kumar for offence of murder and common intention under the Indian Penal Code.
They were also held guilty under provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for committing organised crime resulting in death of the person and the offences entail death penalty as the maximum sentence.
The court also convicted fifth accused Ajay Sethi under section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and MCOCA provisions for conspiring to abet, aid or knowingly facilitate organised crime and for receiving the proceeds of organised crime.
The court would hear arguments on quantum punishment to be awarded to the convicts on October 26.
Pronouncing the operative part of the verdict in a packed courtroom, ASJ Pandey said, “The court is of the considered view that prosecution has duly proved beyond all reasonable doubt that accused Ravi Kapoor and his other associates, co-accused Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Baljeet Malik had committed the murder of the deceased or victim Saumya Vishwanathan with the intention to rob her on September 30, 2008, in between 3:25 AM and 3:55 AM at Nelson Mandela Marg.”
The court, in its 261-page judgement, dealt with the testimonies of 97 prosecution witnesses in a case which hinged on circumstantial evidence and said the four accused were found guilty and convicted under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention).”
Speaking to reporters after the verdict, the victim’s mother Madhavi Viswanathan demanded life imprisonment for all four convicts, saying they should suffer what her family went through.
“We lost our daughter. We demand life terms for convicts, they should suffer what we went through,” she said, adding that they were not in favour of the death penalty.
Five people were arrested for the murder and they have been in custody since March 2009. The recovery of the weapon used in IT executive Jigisha Ghosh’s killing had led to the cracking of Vishwanathan’s murder case, police said.
After Malik moved the Delhi High Court in 2019 for a speedy trial, it sought a report from the trial court, asking why the trial had not concluded even though the charge sheet was filed nine-and-a-half years ago. The trial court had informed the high court that the delay was primarily due to the non-presence of prosecution witnesses and the time taken for the appointment of a special public prosecutor.
(With PTI inputs)
