Delhi court convicts 5 in Soumya Vishwanathan murder case; mother demands life imprisonment

Soumya Vishwanathan murder case: The fifth accused has been convicted for other offences linked to the case.

Delhi's Saket court has convicted four accused in the case of murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan. The fifth accused has been convicted for other offences linked to the case. The court has also convicted them under the stringent MCOCA law.

Saumya Vishwanathan was murdered in September 2008.

The court found that Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Baljeet Malik had committed the murder with the intention of robbing her. They are convicted under sections 302 and 34. They are also held guilty under section 3(1) (i) of MCOCA.

The fifth accused, Ajay Sethi, has been convicted under Section 411 of the Indian Penal Code for retaining the offending vehicle. He also facilitated the organisation and held property derived from organised crime and is held guilty under section 3(2) and 3(5) of MCOCA, the court ruled.

On the verdict, the deceased journalist's mother told ANI: “We've lost our daughter but this (verdict) will act as a deterrent for others also.”

Asked what should be the quantum of sentence, she said "life imprisonment".

The journalist was murdered in Delhi's Vasant Kunj area in September 2008.

She was shot dead at Vasant Kunj's Nelson Mandela Marg in her car.

Vishwanathan used to work with a private channel. She was shot dead while returning home from work on September 28, 2008.

The Delhi police had invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on the basis of the past involvement of accused persons in other heinous cases, including the Jigisha Ghosh murder case.

With inputs from ANI