Soumya murder: Fifth accused held

The fifth accused in the murder of television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan who gave police the slip last week was arrested from Badarpur on Sunday night, reports HT Correspondent.

The fifth accused in the murder of television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan who gave police the slip last week was arrested from Badarpur on Sunday night.

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Police also claimed to have recovered the Wagon R car that was used in the journalist’s murder from him.

Police said the accused, identified as Ajay Sethi (44) who has several cases of car thefts registered against him, had kept the car at a parking lot in Sector 14, Faridabad.

On March 24 the police had arrested four accused identified as Ravi Kapoor, Amit Kumar Shukla, Baljeet Malik alias Poppy and Ajay Kumar in connection with IT professional Jigeesha Ghosh’s murder. During their interrogation it was revealed that the same gang had killed Viswanathan as well.

“After he managed to give police the slip last week he had fled to Haridwar and was

moving in Haryana and Punjab,” said HGS Dhaliwal, DCP (south).

Police said Kapoor, who was a notorious car thief, used to sell stolen cars to Sethi. The two had met in Tihar Jail in 2003 when the Special Cell had arrested them in separate cases of cheating and car theft.

Police said Sethi was also involved in several robbery cases in Dehradun. He had been living in a rented house in Faridabad with his wife and his son studies in a boarding school in Allahabad.

“Kapoor sold the car to Sethi at a throwaway price in November last year. Till these men were arrested Sethi was not aware that the car was used in Soumya’s murder. He became suspicious when Kapoor did not bargain with him on the price of the car. Sethi came to know about the car’s involvement only when Kapoor and others were arrested in March,” said the officer.

Police said Kapoor had used a beacon light to dodge the police at Badarpur border in November when he was going to deliver the car to Sethi in Faridabad.

“After killing Soumya, Kapoor kept the car for some time at a the house of Amit’s relative. He got it freshly painted and sold it to Sethi as he feared that this could turn out to be a clinching evidence against him if he was ever caught,” said the officer.