Delhi court convicts four men in Soumya Vishwanathan murder case | 5 points to know

Soumya Vishwanathan was a 25-year-old journalist working with India Today who was found dead in her car on Nelson Mandela Marg in South Delhi on September 30, 2008.

Soumya was heading home to Vasant Kunj in her Maruti Zen from her Jhandewalan office after finishing work around 3 am. Her elder sister and brother-in-law had flown in from Vietnam after a long time and were waiting for her at home. Soumya spoke to her father around 3.15 am while on her way, informing him that she would reach home in another 15-20 minutes.

The police had said a rickshaw puller had called them around 3.30 am informing them about an accident and Soumya was found dead in her car. In the afternoon, the police were informed by doctors at the AIIMS trauma centre that there was a bullet in her skull and a murder case was registered.

Almost six months later, the police claimed that Jigisha Ghosh's killers were also the ones who shot and killed Soumya.

It was a tattoo that led Delhi Police to the three men who were allegedly involved in the murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan in September 2008 and IT executive Jigisha Ghosh in March 2009.

Jigisha, an operations manager in a management consultancy firm, was abducted and killed on March 18, 2009, after she was dropped by her office cab near her Vasant Vihar home and her body was found near Surajkund in Faridabad. The initial investigation revealed that the victim’s ATM card had been used in several shops in Sarojini Nagar market on the day she went missing. The three accused were spotted in footage from a watch shop, which showed one of the accused clearly; he was well-built and had a tattoo on his left wrist. Soon, a police team started visiting gyms in Vasant Vihar, Vasant Kunj, Malviya Nagar and Saket and Baljeet Malik alias Poppy was identified by a gym instructor in Masoodpur village in Vasant Kunj.

Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar were held guilty of murder while Ajay Sethi was convicted of stealing property under sections of the MCOCA 1999.

Ajay Sethi is convicted under section 411 IPC (dishonestly stealing property) and sections of the MCOCA act 1999. Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, Ajay Sethi, and Ajay Kumar — are facing charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) as well as charges of murder (Section 302), robbery (Section 390) and common intent (Section 34) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The MCOCA charges added complexity to the case, as it was for the prosecution to prove that these five men were part of an organised crime gang involved in multiple violent crimes.