Journalist Soumya Vishwanthan's murder is one of the sensational cases that remained in the news for years for its unique nature. The Delhi Police remained clueless for 6-month believing it was a robbery case and found the first and most crucial lead when they arrested two accused for being involved in another woman's murder case.
The unfortunate part of the case is that the family of the victim waited 15 years for justice. A Delhi court finally pronounced its verdict announcing the conviction of the five accused on Wednesday.
Earlier, Additional Sessions Judge Ravindra Kumar Pandey reserved the judgment in the case on October 13 after the completion of arguments by the defence and prosecution.
What happened on September 30 in 2008?
Soumya was shot dead on September 30, 2008 while she was returning home in her car from the office in the wee hours. The police had earlier claimed robbery as the motive behind the killing. But forensic reports indicated she died due to a bullet injury in her head, subsequently, the police added murder charges and headed an inquiry.
Who was Soumya Vishwanathan?
Soumya Vishwanathan was a journalist with the 'Headlines Today' news channel. The journalist was shot dead while she was returning from work.
How did the arrest of two accused in another case solve the murder mystery?
For the first six months, the probe could not progress but the arrest of two accused Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla, who were arrested for their involvement in another case, led to solve the murder mystery. Both of them were arrested in the murder case of call centre executive Jigisha Ghosh. During the interrogation, the duo admitted the killing of another woman Soumya Vishwanathan.
Thrilling activity behind the murder?
A report published by 'India Today' suggested that Kapoor and Shukla confessed to the murder describing it as a "thrilling activity".
Who were the accused?
Earlier in March 2009, Delhi Police arrested two suspects Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla for their involvement in another case. Later, they arrested three more accused - Baljeet Malik, Ajay Kumar and Ajay Sethi. They have been in custody since March 2009.
MCOCA invoked against the accused
The police had invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against the accused. 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.
Death penalty reduced to a life sentence
On January 4, the High Court reduced the death penalty awarded to two of the three convicts in the Jigisha Ghosh murder case to a life sentence saying the crime did not qualify as "rarest of rare" warranting capital punishment.
A division bench of the High Court, while modifying the death penalty awarded to Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla, had also confirmed the life sentence to the third convict, Baljeet Malik, in the murder case.
Who was Jigisha Ghosh?
28-year-old Jigisha Ghosh, an operations manager in a management consultancy firm, was abducted and killed on March 18, 2009 after she was dropped by her office cab around 4 am near her home in the Vasant Vihar area of South Delhi. Her body was recovered three days later from a place near Surajkund in Haryana.
Also read: Soumya Vishwanathan case: 5 convicted for murder of journalist in Delhi in 2008
