A Delhi court on Wednesday convicted five people of the murder of journalist Soumya Viswanathan, who was shot dead 15 years ago while she was returning home from work.
Additional sessions judge Ravindra Kumar Pandey also convicted Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Ajay Kumar of loot under provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The fifth accused, Ajay Sethi, was found guilty of helping the others. He was convicted under IPC Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and under MCOCA provisions for conspiring to abet, aid or knowingly facilitate organised crime and for receiving the proceeds of organised crime.
The judge listed the matter for pronouncing the quantum of punishment on October 26.
Soumya, 25, a journalist with India Today, was shot dead in her car at south Delhi’s upscale neighbourhood of Vasant Vihar on September 30, 2008, around 3.30am when she was on her way back from work. She had sustained bullet injuries in her head.
Delhi police in its chargesheet filed before the court in 2009 had said that the motive behind the killing was robbery.
During the probe, the police had initially struggled to identify the accused. The first breakthrough in the case had come during the investigation into the murder of IT executive Jigisha Ghosh who was found dead in Haryana’s Faridabad a few months after Soumya’s murder. One of the accused in Ghosh’s murder confessed to also being involved in Soumya’s murder.
The trial in Soumya’s case went on for 15 years and the prosecution took 13 years to present all the evidence in court.
Soumya’s elderly parents — Madhavi Viswanathan and M.K. Viswanathan — were on Wednesday present in court when the judge convicted the five people.
After the verdict, a teary-eyed Madhavi told reporters: “We lost our daughter but this verdict will act as a deterrent for others, otherwise they (convicts) would have been emboldened.”
She said she wanted the life sentence for the convicts.
She hugged H.G.S. Dhaliwal, now special commissioner of Delhi police, for his support throughout. Dhaliwal, who was deputy commissioner (south) when Soumya was killed, had supervised the probe.
Dhaliwal on Wednesday came to the court to support the couple before the verdict was pronounced.
Jail for Azam & family
Lucknow: An MP-MLA court in Rampur on Wednesday sentenced Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, his wife Tazeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam to seven years in jail in a forgery case.
District prosecution officer Amar Nath Tiwari told reporters at the gate of the court: “The court has handed seven years of jail and a fine of Rs 15,000 to Azam, Tazeen and Abdullah. They will be sent to jail. They can move a higher court for bail.”
Akash Saxena, the BJP MLA of Rampur Sadar, had filed a case in the local court on January 3, 2019, accusing Abdullah of forging documents to get a fake birth certificate to contest the 2017 Assembly election from Suar Tanda in Rampur district.
PIYUSH SRIVASTAVA
