Delhi court convicts five for murdering journalist Soumya Vishwanathan in 2008

In the 2008 murder case of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, five persons were found guilty today. Additionally, a Delhi court found the defendants guilty of looting in accordance with the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Akshay Kumar, Amit Shukla, Baljit Mallick, and Ravi Kapoor were found guilty of robbery and murder. Ajay Sethi, the fifth accused, was found guilty of assisting the other accused. On September 30, 2008, Soumya, a 25-year-old journalist for Headlines Today, was slain in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar while returning from her place of employment. Her car contained her body. She had been hit in the head. After the verdict, Soumya’s mother said to the reporters, “We lost our daughter, but this will act as a deterrent for others.” She said she wants life imprisonment for the convicts. The first lead that the police had in the case came from their investigation into the murder of IT executive Jigisha Ghose, who was discovered dead in Faridabad many months after Soumya. Shukla, Malik, and Kapoor had all been detained in relation to the death of the IT executive. Police discovered their connections to the Vasant Vihar murder while interviewing them. Two additional accused were then taken into custody. The Delhi Police had stated in its 620-page 2009 chargesheet that robbery was the reason for the murder. “They face charges related to forgery, murder, evidence destruction, and criminal conspiracy. The five accused have also been hit with MCOCA, according to senior police officer HGS Dhaliwal. The Union Home Ministry expanded the MCOCA, which was initially implemented in Mumbai, to Delhi in 2002.