Court convicts 4 for 2008 murder that rocked Delhi

A Delhi court has convicted four people for the murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan 15 years ago. A fifth person was convicted for receiving stolen property and conspiring to facilitate organized crime. Vishwanathan was shot dead in her car in 2008, which sparked outrage and protests in Delhi. The convicted individuals may face a maximum sentence of the death penalty. The sentencing will take place on October 26.

A Delhi court on Wednesday convicted four people for killing journalist Soumya Vishwanathan 15 years ago, bringing the curtain down on a gruesome saga that sent shock waves through the Capital and cemented Delhi’s unsavoury reputation as a city unsafe for women.

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A fifth person — Ajay Sethi — was convicted for dishonestly receiving stolen property and conspiring to abet, aid or knowingly facilitate organised crime.

The 25-year-old television journalist was driving back home on September 30, 2008 in her car when she was shot dead on a desolate stretch on Nelson Mandela Marg near Vasant Kunj around 3.30am. The murder stoked outrage and protests across the Capital, which was struggling to grapple with a string of cases of crimes against women at the time.

Additional sessions judge (ASJ) Ravindra Kumar Pandey held four of the five accused — Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Baljeet Malik — guilty of murdering Vishwanathan and convicted them under sections 302 (murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and also section 3(1)(i) of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crimes Act (MCOCA) as well. The maximum sentence they may face is a death penalty.

“The court is of the considered view that prosecution has duly proved beyond all reasonable doubt that accused Ravi Kapoor and his other associates, co-accused Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Baljeet Malik had committed the murder of the deceased or victim Saumya Vishwanathan with the intention to rob her on September 30, 2008, in between 3.25am and 3.55am at Nelson Mandela Marg,” the court said in a 261-page judgment.

The court also held that the fifth accused — Ajay Sethi — retained the offending vehicle, abetted or knowingly facilitated the commission of an organised crime, and held the property derived from the proceeds of the crime. The court convicted him under Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of IPC and under sections 3(2) and 3(5) of MCOCA.

“The prosecution has also duly proved beyond all reasonable doubt that accused Ajay Sethi retained knowingly and intentionally the offending vehicle and he is accordingly held guilty and convicted for charge of offence punishable U/s 411 IPC,” the court held.

The five men will be sentenced on October 26.

“This decision will act as a deterrent; we are expecting life imprisonment,” said her mother Madhavi Vishwanathan.

“Justice has been done,” said her father MK Vishwanathan.

The trial in the case began in 2009 and spanned 300 hearings, comprising 97 witnesses.

The evidence in the case initially pointed towards an accident — that Vishwanathan rammed her Maruti Zen into a divider while returning home to Vasant Kunj from her office at Jhandewalan and died in the crash. But the autopsy report showed a bullet in her right temple.

Over the next six months, the police rounded up dozens of suspects but failed to make a breakthrough. Then on March 18, 2009, another woman, call centre employee Jigisha Ghosh, 27, was found strangled to death. It was during questioning in this case that one of the accused confessed to a past murder, reviving what had till then seemed like a cold case.

In its investigation, the Delhi police found that the men — Malik, Kumar and Shukla — were involved in a string of crimes beginning 2002 involving violence or threats and were members of an organised crime syndicate led by Kapoor. On September 30, 2008, the four men waited near PVR Priya in Vasant Vihar inside a stolen car for a target they could rob. After making a failed attempt to stop Vishwanathan’s car, they began following her, said the police. Vishwanathan was listening to music and perhaps did not notice the accused. “They repeatedly honked in a bid to make her halt. They shot her either to frighten her or force her to stop. Kapoor fired at her car,” said Bhisham Singh, the investigating officer..

“The prosecution has duly proved its case through scientific evidence and through the testimony of PW-7 and PW-11 and through the confessional statement of the accused Ravi Kapoor that accused Ravi Kapoor and his other associates namely Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Ajay Kumar had committed murder of the deceased/victim Saumya Vishwanathan on 30.09.2008 by firing bullet upon her by the accused Ravi Kapoor…” the court held.

It also noted that prosecution also proved that the men were dependent for their livelihood on the proceeds of the crime.

“It is duly proved by the prosecution that the accused persons were dependent for their livelihood on the proceeds of the organized crime as committed by their organized crime syndicate and they did not led any evidence that they were having any other pecuniary source for their livelihood,” said the order.

Malik, Kapoor and Shukla were convicted by the trial court in the Jigisha Ghosh case in August 2016. The court sentenced Kapoor and Shukla to death, and Malik to life imprisonment. In January 2018, the Delhi high court commuted the death sentence of Kapoor and Shukla to life imprisonment, while upholding Malik’s sentence.

Special commissioner of police HGS Dhaliwal, who was involved in the investigation, said that verdict was a big day for the police. “These accused have already been convicted in the Jigisha Ghosh murder case and we are happy that they have again been convicted in this case,” he said.

The Delhi Police filed its first charge sheet in the Vishwanathan case in June 2009 under sections 302 and 34. Later, the police filed a supplementary charge sheet in October 2009 before the court for offence under Section 3 of MCOCA.