Soumya Viswanathan’s mother moves Supreme Court against bail to 4 life convicts

New Delhi, April 20

Madhavi Viswanathan, mother of slain TV journalist Soumya Viswanathan, has approached the Supreme Court to challenge the bail granted to four convicts serving life imprisonment in the 2008 case of her daughter’s murder.

2008 CASE

• Soumya Vishwanathan, a journalist with a leading English news channel, was shot dead on September 30, 2008, while driving home on Nelson Mandela Marg in South Delhi
• Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik had been convicted in the 2009 Jigisha Ghosh murder case and are still in jail
• The trio later confessed to police they were also behind Vishwanathan’s murder, and the weapon used for killing her was recovered from their possession
• The Delhi Police had said robbery was the motive behind Vishwanathan’s murder

The Delhi High Court on February 12 suspended the sentence of Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik and Ajay Kumar and granted them bail till the pendency of their appeals challenging their conviction and sentence.

Kapoor, Shukla and Malik were also convicted in the 2009 Jigisha Ghosh murder case and are still in jail. The trio later confessed to police they were also behind Vishwanathan’s murder, and the weapon used for killing her was recovered from their possession. The Delhi Police had said the motive behind Vishwanathan’s killing was robbery.

Soumya Vishwanathan, a journalist with a leading English news channel, was shot dead on September 30, 2008, while driving home on Nelson Mandela Marg in South Delhi.

While granting relief to the convicts, the Delhi High Court had noted that they have been in custody for 14 years.

In November 2023, a special court sentenced Kapoor, Shukla, Malik, and Kumar to two life terms under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and Section 3(1)(i) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Their sentences were ordered to run consecutively.

Ajay Sethi, the fifth convict, received three years of imprisonment under Section 411 of the IPC, but was given credit for time served.

The trial court initially sentenced Kapoor and Shukla to death and Malik to life imprisonment for Ghosh’s murder. The high court later commuted Kapoor and Shukla’s sentences to life imprisonment while affirming Malik’s sentence.

Madhavi Viswanathan’s plea is expected to be heard by a bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal at the Supreme Court.