Journalist Soumya Vishwanathan's mysterious murder: Four accused get life term

NEW DELHI: The Saket court in Delhi sentenced life imprisonment to the four accused in the Malayali journalist Soumya Vishwanathan's murder case. Four accused were sentenced to life imprisonment and the fifth accused was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of five lakh rupees.

The court sentenced the four accused namely Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljit Singh and Ajay Kumar to life imprisonment. Ajay Sethi, the fifth accused, was sentenced to three years in prison. The verdict was delivered by the Saket Additional Sessions Court. The court found the accused guilty on October 18.

The court verdict in the mysterious case comes after 15 years of ambiguity. According to the prosecution, it was a murder committed during a robbery attempt. The murder took place on September 30, 2008 at 3:30 am. Soumya, a journalist at Headlines Today (now IndiaToday), was returning to her home in Delhi's Vasant Kunj by car after work. According to the police, the gang who followed Soumya in another car shot at her and robbed her when they reached Nelson Mandela Marg.

Soumya, who was in the driving seat, was shot in the head. For six months, the police did not get any clue about the killers. Their role in the killing of Soumya Viswanathan came to light in March 2009 when the accused were arrested in the murder of IT employee Jigisha Ghosh.