Journalist Soumya Vishwanathan’s killers handed life sentence by Delhi court

Delhi’s Saket court on Saturday sentenced four convicts in the murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan to life imprisonment, almost 15 years.

After the crime took place in the national capital. The fifth convict has been sentenced to the period already undergone by him in jail.

All four accused, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Balbir Malik, Ajay Kumar have also been fined Rs 25,000 each and Rs 1 lakh each under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The fifth convict, Ajay Sethi, was fined Rs 7.5 lakh.

The court also ordered that Rs 1.2 lakh from the fine imposed on the four convicts be given to the parents of Soumya Vishwanathan. Out of the Rs 7.25 lakh to be paid by Ajay Sethi, Rs. 7.2 lakh should also be released to the family, the court ordered.

The court observed that the act of the four convicts does not fall under the ‘rarest of rare’ category and hence, the death penalty cannot be imposed.

While pronouncing the order, the court remarked, “It is unfortunate that Soumya, who was a young, dynamic, and hardworking journalist, lost her life. In India, the female work participation rate has been declining, and one of the reasons for such decline is that women face a higher risk of abuse and assault while travelling to and from work.”

Soumya, a journalist with India Today Group, was shot dead in the early hours of September 30, 2008, on south Delhi’s Nelson Mandela Marg while she was returning home from work. Police claimed the motive was robbery.

The court had, on October 18, convicted all five accused of murder and crime with common intention. The convicts were also held guilty under the provisions of the MCOCA for committing organised crime resulting in the death of the person. The offences entail the death penalty as the maximum sentence.

Ajay Sethi was also convicted under Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and MCOCA provisions for conspiring to abet, aid or knowingly facilitate organised crime and for receiving the proceeds of organised crime.

According to the prosecution, Ravi Kapoor shot Vishwanathan with a country-made pistol on Nelson Mandela Marg while chasing the victim’s car to rob her. Shukla, Kumar and Malik were also with Kapoor. Initially believed to be a car accident, until forensic reports disclosed her cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head.