‘She Was Shot For No Reason’, Says Soumya’s Mother; SC Issues Notice On Her Plea

A Bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal issued notice to the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the four convicts, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik and Ajay Kumar, on the petition filed by Ms. Vishwanathan’s mother challenging the bail order and the suspension of sentence of the convicts.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice a petition filed by the mother of TV journalist Soumya Viswanathan, challenging the bail granted to four men serving life imprisonment for her daughter's murder in 2008.

A bench comprising justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal sought response from the four convicts and the Delhi government in four weeks.

Initially, the bench was not inclined to issue notice in the matter; however the petitioner’s counsel insisted that the matter requires apex court’s attention. “I am an anguished mother of the deceased”, said the counsel for Soumya’s mother. She pressed that her client’s daughter was coming back from work and for no reason she was shot and “she was innocent…”. She pressed that the accused are part of a criminal syndicate. “Let notice be issued, returnable after four weeks’”, said the bench.

Madhavi Viswanathan, the mother of TV journalist Soumya Viswanathan, 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.

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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