SC issues notice to govt on High Court order granting bail to 4 convicts
New Delhi, April 22
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Delhi Government on a petition challenging the Delhi High Court’s order granting bail to four convicts serving life imprisonment in the 2008 TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan murder case.
Acting on a petition filed by the slain journalist’s mother, a Bench led by Justice Bela M Trivedi asked the Delhi Government and four convicts to file their replies in four weeks.
Noting that they have been in jail for 14 years, the Delhi High Court on February 12 granted bail to four convicts — Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik and Ajay Kumar — and suspended their sentence till the pendency of their appeals against their conviction and sentence.
Soumya (25) was shot dead in the wee hours of September 30 on Nelson Mandela Marg in Delhi while she was returning home from work. The police had alleged that the motive behind the killing was robbery.
A special court had on November 26, 2023, awarded two life terms to Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Ajay Kumar under Section 302 of the IPC and Section 3(1)(i) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. The fifth convict, Ajay Sethi, was handed down three years of simple imprisonment.
