A look back at the 2008 murder and its aftermath
TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan was shot dead on 30 September 2008 in Delhi. Image Courtesy: News18 File Photo
A Delhi court has convicted four persons for the 2008 murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan. A fifth accused was found guilty of receiving stolen property by the Saket court in the National Capital on Wednesday (18 October).
The five culprits have been convicted under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Additional Sessions Judge Ravindra Kumar Pandey has fixed 26 October for announcing the quantum of sentence.
What is the Soumya Vishwanathan murder case? How were the accused arrested? Let’s understand.
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Soumya Vishwanathan murder case
Soumya Vishwanathan, a 25-year-old TV journalist working for Headlines Today – now known as India Today, was shot dead in Delhi on 30 September 2008 as she was travelling to her home from office.
As per an Indian Express report, Soumya was returning to her home in Vasant Kunj in a Maruti Zen after completing her work around 3 am. She told her father MK Viswanathan around 3.15 am that she would reach home in the next 15-20 minutes.
The Delhi police said they received a call from a rickshaw puller around 3.30 am about the accident. Soumya was found dead in her car on Nelson Mandela Marg in South Delhi. Forensic reports revealed a gunshot wound in her skull as the cause of death, which led to the police registering a murder case, according to the media.
The case created a huge uproar across India, especially after the then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit infamously remarked: “Girls shouldn’t be so adventurous” (driving home late and alone), according to The Quint report.
A “Justice for Soumya” campaign erupted across cities, with petitions reaching Dikshit and then Union home minister Shivraj Patil, the report added.
How were the accused arrested?
It took six months before the first accused were arrested in the case. CCTV footage had showed a car chasing Soumya’s vehicle, reported India Today.
A major development in the journalist’s case came in 2009 during the investigation into the murder of BPO employee Jigisha Ghosh.
On 18 March 2009, Jigisha, an operations manager in a management consultancy firm, was kidnapped and killed after her office cab dropped her near her house in Vasant Vihar. Her body was found near Surajkund in Faridabad, reported Indian Express.
During the probe into her murder, one of the accused confessed involvement in Soumya Vishwanathan’s murder, as per The Hindu report.
The questioning of the three accused – Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla and Baljeet Malik – in the Jigisha murder case led the police to two more culprits – Ajay Sethi and Ajay Kumar – who were also involved in Soumya’s case.
The recovery of the weapon used in Jigisha’s murder helped the police in solving the TV journalist’s case as well. According to the police’s chargesheet filed in June 2009, robbery was the motive behind Soumya’s killing.
Later, the police slapped MCOCA charges against the five accused in Soumya’s case.
In 2017, a trial court awarded a death sentence to Kapoor and Shukla and life imprisonment for Malik in the Jigisha murder case. However, the next year, the Delhi High Court commuted the death sentence of Kapoor and Shukla to life term and upheld Malik’s life imprisonment.
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Charges in Soumya murder case
The MCOCA charges made the case more complex as it was the prosecution’s responsibility to prove these five were part of an organised crime syndicate. It took the prosecution 13 years to present evidence, while the trial went on for 15 years, noted Indian Express.
The culprits are facing charges under MCOCA as well as offences of murder (Section 302), robbery (Section 390) and common intent (Section 34) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Sethi has been convicted under section 411 IPC (dishonestly stealing property) and sections 3(2) and 3(5) of the MCOCA – conspiring to abet, aid or knowingly facilitate organised crime and for receiving the proceeds of organised crime, reported PTI.
Soumya’s family demands life term
Madhavi Viswanathan, who lost her young daughter in 2008, has called for life imprisonment for the convicts.
“We lost our daughter. We demand life term for convicts, they should suffer what we went through,” PTI quoted the slain journalist’s mother as saying.
As per NDTV, HGS Dhaliwal, who was Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) in 2008, shared how Soumya’s father diligently pursued the case and the family refused a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, placing their “faith” in the Delhi police.
“It took us six months to work out the case. Every single day, Viswanathan attended our review meetings, and saw our team working on this case. Viswanathan was made an offer for a CBI investigation. But this is a rare case in which the victim’s family said they want Delhi Police to work on this case,” Dhaliwal, who is currently the special commissioner of police of Delhi Police Special Cell, was quoted as saying by the news channel.
The police officer told reporters he was “very happy” with the Delhi court’s verdict.
With inputs from agencies
