SC Likely to Hear on Monday Journalist Soumya Vishwanathan's Mother Plea against HC Order

TV journalist Soumya Viswanathan was shot dead in the early hours of September 30, 2008, in south Delhi when she was returning home from work. The Delhi High Court on February 12 granted bail to the accused, noting that the convicts have been in custody for 14 years.

New Delhi :Madhavi Viswanathan, the mother of TV journalist Soumya Viswanathan, has moved the Supreme Court challenging the bail granted to four convicts, serving life imprisonment for her daughter's murder in 2008. Vishwanathan was shot dead in the early hours on September 30, 2008, on Nelson Mandela Marg in south Delhi. She was returning home from work in her car. The Delhi High Court on February 12, granting bail to the accused, had noted that the convicts have been in custody for 14 years.

The high court suspended the sentences of Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik and Ajay Kumar and granted them bail till the pendency of their appeals challenging their conviction and sentence.

According to the cause list uploaded on the apex court’s website, a bench comprising justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal is likely to hear the plea filed by Madhavi Viswanathan, on Monday.

In November 2023, a special court had awarded two life terms to the four accused who were booked for murder and also under Section 3(1)(i) (committing organised crime resulting in the death of any person) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The court had made it clear that the sentences will run "consecutively". The fifth convict, Ajay Sethi, was handed down three years of simple imprisonment under section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the IPC.

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