New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has suspended the life sentence of four convicts in the murder of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan. The court said that the sentence will remain suspended until a decision is taken on the appeal of the convicts challenging their conviction and life sentence. An order to this effect has been issued by a bench consisting of Justice Suresh Kait and Justice Manoj Jain. The four life convicts were granted bail.
The life convicts included Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Baljeet Malik. The court said that all four convicts have been in jail for about 14 years, hence their sentence is suspended. In November, 2023, the Saket court had sentenced four convicts in the murder case of Soumya Vishwanathan to life imprisonment and one convict to three years imprisonment.
Besides giving life sentence, the court had also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on all four for murder and Rs 1 lakh under MCOCA. Apart from this, the court had sentenced Ajay Sethi to three years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5 lakh. The special court had awarded two life terms to the four life convicts in the sensational murder case.
Saket court had found Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Baljeet Malik guilty of the murder of TV journalist Saumya Vishwanathan. The court had also found these four accused guilty under Section 3(1)(i) of MCOCA. Ajay Sethi, the fourth accused in this case was found guilty under section 411 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 3(2) and 3(5) of MCOCA.
Soumya Vishwanathan, who was working for an English news channel, was shot dead on Nelson Mandela Road in South Delhi while returning from her office in her car on the night of 30 September 2008. The convicts were charged with chasing their victim's car and used a country-made pistol to shoot her dead. They also took away her car, which was later recovered by the police from co-accused Ajay Sethi alias Chacha. According to the police, the motive of the murder was robbery. At the same time, Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla were convicted in the IT executive Jigisha Ghosh murder case in 2009.
The counsels of the convicts appealed to the court to suspended the sentence till his appeal is disposed of, saying that his client has been in custody for over 14 years and nine months.
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