How arrests in IT exec’s murder helped cops crack Soumya Vishwanathan case

It was in March 2009, when cops were solving another robbery-murder case, that they found Soumya’s killers. A team led by Inspectors Neeraj Chaudhary and Upender Singh and ACP Atul Verma, under Special Commissioner HGS Dhaliwal (who was DCP South then), got to work.

On March 19, 2009, IT executive Jigisha Ghosh was abducted by three men after her office cab dropped her near her residence in Vasant Vihar around 4 am. Two days later, her body was found near Surajkund, Haryana. Police said she was robbed of her belongings.

Dhaliwal said, “The two incidents took place a few kilometres from each other. While we were investigating Jigisha’s case, it was found that someone was using her ATM cards on March 20 and making withdrawals from multiple places… near shops at PVR Priya Complex, Saket market, Sarojini Nagar etc. At Sarojini, the accused bought watches with Jigisha’s debit card.”
It was footage from the watch shop and ATM that gave police their first visual of the suspect — a tall and stout man with a tattoo of his name on his right hand. A second accused was caught in another footage with a weight set on his waist.

Investigators said it was clear the accused were young boys/men who were into fitness. The photos were shown to all nearby gyms, pubs, barber shops, and clubhouses.

With help from a gym owner, police identified and apprehended Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Ravi Kapoor on March 23, 2009. The trio were caught in Vasant Vihar in a stolen Santro car.

“This was the same car used to abduct Jigisha. We also found that the accused murdered her inside the car and later dumped her body,” said Dhaliwal.

The court observations in the case revealed that Jigisha was threatened and she gave all her debit card PINs to the accused but they still murdered her. She was abducted and tortured for hours in and around Delhi.

“During questioning, we asked about their previous involvements. It was then revealed that the men had killed Soumya in 2008. They said they shot her along with another associate, Ajay Bhainga. They also said they killed a taxi driver in January 2009 after robbing him,” added Dhaliwal.

The bullet found in Soumya’s car was cross-checked with the weapon recovered from the accused — it was a match. Police also recovered the car used at the time of Soumya’s murder and confirmed that the men who killed Jigisha also killed Soumya.

Questioning also revealed that the accused gave chase and killed Soumya after she refused to stop her car, and abducted Jigisha as she was talking on her phone and didn’t pay heed to them when they shouted at her, police said.

Investigators revealed the accused were serial offenders. “They lived near Malviya Nagar where they would get drunk at night and roam around in cars. They would target taxi drivers or women found alone. We also matched the call records from their confessions. It proved that the accused were present at the murder spots at the same time,” said an officer.