In the murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, the High Court releases four lifers on bond

Four lifelong offenders in the murder of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan were granted release by the Delhi High Court on Monday.

The sentences of Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik, and Ajay Kumar were suspended by a panel of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain while their appeals against their conviction and sentence were pending.

The prisoners had been in detention for fourteen years, the court remarked.

On January 23, the Delhi Police was instructed by the high court to reply to the petitions that the four convicted individuals had filed.

While driving home from work on Nelson Mandela Marg in south Delhi in the early hours of September 30, 2008, Vishwanathan, an employee of a major English news channel, was shot and killed.

On November 26, 2023, a special court imposed two life sentences on Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar for violating Section 3(1)(i) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), which prohibits the commission of organized crime that results in the death of any person, and Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

It was explicitly stated by the court that the sentences will be served “consecutively”.

Ajay Sethi, the fifth guilty party, was sentenced to three years of simple imprisonment under section 411 of the IPC (dishonestly accepting stolen property).

Sethi was imprisoned during the trial for offenses under the IPC and MCOCA for conspiring to abet, aid, or knowingly facilitate organized crime and receiving proceeds of organized crime. This, however, set off the three-year sentence against the time Sethi had already served.

In his submission, Kapoor’s attorney said that his client has been detained for the last 14 years and 9 months and asked the court to impose a sentence suspension while the appeal is pending.

Advocate Amit Kumar, who prayed for a similar sentence suspension on behalf of Shukla, Malik, and Ajay Kumar, also made this request.

The trial court fined each of Kapoor, Shukla, Malik, and Kumar Rs 1.25 lakh in addition to condemning them to double life in jail.

Sethi had been fined Rs 7.25 lakh by it.

In light of the seriousness of Kapoor’s offenses, the high court recently refused him release.

Among the four convicted, Jigisha Ghosh, an IT professional, was also found to have been killed by Kapoor, Shukla, and Malik.

The weapon used to kill Vishwanathan was found to be in the hands of the three, who subsequently admitted to authorities that they were also responsible for her death.

Robbery was the stated motivation of Vishwanathan’s homicide by the Delhi Police.

In the 2009 Jigisha Ghosh murder case, the trial court had given the death penalty to Kapoor and Shukla and sentenced Malik to life in jail.

Nonetheless, the supreme court modified the death penalty to life in prison.

Malik’s life sentence was affirmed by the supreme court.

The prosecution claims that while pursuing Vishwanathan’s automobile to rob her, Kapoor shot her using a handgun produced in the nation.

Kapoor had Shukla, Kumar, and Malik with him as well.

The vehicle used in the murder was found by police in Sethi, also known as Chacha.