Verdict in Jigisha case shows no crime rare any more: Soumya Vishwanathan’s mother

After arresting IT executive Jigisha Ghosh’s killers in March 2009, Delhi Police had declared that the same three men had allegedly killed journalist Soumya Vishwanathan too

As Sabita Ghosh struggled to cope with the court’s decision to commute the death sentence of her daughter’s killers to life in prison, her friend Madhvi Vishwanathan stated that Thursday’s verdict sent a reminder that “no crime is rare anymore”.

Soumya Vishwanathan was shot dead on September 30, 2008 at Nelson Mandela Marg in south Delhi while she was driving back home. (HT Photo)

Sabita and Madhvi have shared an almost identical journey over the last nine years. Madhvi is the mother of Soumya Vishwanathan, a TV journalist, who was shot dead on Nelson Mandela Marg in south Delhi in September 2008, around six months before Jigisha Ghosh’s murder.

After arresting Jigisha’s killers, the Delhi Police had announced that the same three men had killed Soumya too. Later on, the police had gone on to link the trio to the murder of another cab driver, Mohd Nadeem. Robbery had been attributed as the motive in all the three murders.

While the police were able to obtain conviction in Jigisha’s case last year, Soumya’s and Nadeem’s cases are still being argued without a verdict even from the lower court yet.

Madhvi said she was “mentally prepared” to expect a life sentence and not death for the killers in her daughter’s case as well. “Today’s verdict in Jigisha’s case only shows that no crime is rare anymore. Human life has become cheap,” she said.

For the last many years, Madhvi and Sabita have been sharing each other’s pain. “When the high court announced its verdict, Sabita called me up. She was distraught. At least I have a daughter and grandson to help me try to move on in life. Sabita and her husband have no one. They have no hope left in life, nothing to look forward to. They have not been able to move on in life,” said Madhvi.

She said that of all the three cases, Jigisha’s was the strongest with hard evidence in the form of CCTV footage. “In such a watertight case, in which there was no doubt, there should have been no delay. Jigisha’s parents shouldn’t have been made to suffer for nine years,” Madhvi said.