New Delhi: A Delhi court has scheduled a hearing for November 7 to determine the sentencing of the five men found guilty in the 2008 murder of television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan. The victim, an employee of a prominent English news channel, was fatally shot on the early morning of September 30, 2008, while driving home on Nelson Mandela Marg in South Delhi. The initial police investigation suggested that the motive behind the killing was robbery.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Ravindra Kumar Pandey observed that certain essential documents, including the pre-sentencing report (PSR) prepared by the probationary officer and the affidavits submitted by the five convicts, had not yet been filed. ASJ Pandey directed the preparation of these documents and scheduled further proceedings for November 7.
On October 18, the court had convicted the five individuals, namely Ravindra Kumar Pandey, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Shetty, finding four of them guilty of murder and one guilty of dishonestly obtaining stolen goods, while all five were convicted under the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA).
The upcoming court session will involve discussions about the potential sentences under the relevant sections, considering factors such as the convicts' socio-economic status, background, and behaviour. The court will also have the authority to decide on compensation for the victim's family.
Notably, journalist Soumya Vishwanathan was shot and killed while driving her car on Nelson Mandela Marg in Delhi during the early hours of September 30, 2008, around 3:30 am as she was returning home from work. The initial police theory pointed to robbery as the motive for the murder. However, five suspects, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, Ajay Kumar, and Ajay Shetty, were apprehended in connection with her murder. They have been in custody since March 2009, with the police invoking the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against them. Baljeet Malik, along with two others, Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla, had previously been convicted in the 2009 murder case of IT executive Jigisha Ghosh.
The breakthrough in the investigation of Vishwanathan's murder came through the recovery of the weapon used in the murder of Jigisha Ghosh. In 2017, the court sentenced Kapoor and Amit Shukla to death and Baljeet Malik to life imprisonment in the Jigisha Ghosh murder case. However, the following year, the High Court commuted the death sentences of Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla to life imprisonment while upholding the life sentence of Baljeet Malik in the Jigisha murder case.
