2008 TV journo's murder: 2 challenge conviction, life sentence before Delhi HC

New Delhi: Two men, convicted in the 2008 murder case of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, have approached the Delhi High Court challenging a trial court's order holding them guilty and sentencing them to life imprisonment.
The Saket court had, in November, sentenced Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar, to life imprisonment, while the fifth convict, Ajay Sethi, was sentenced to three years imprisonment.

While convicting the accused, the court had said that the offence did not fall in the category of "rarest of rare" cases and had refused to grant the request for the death penalty.

Kapoor, Shukla, Kumar, and Malik were convicted under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) provisions and Sethi for receiving stolen property. The police had attributed the motive for her killing to robbery and had invoked the stringent MCOCA against the accused.

On September 30, 2008, Vishwanathan was shot dead on the Nelson Mandela Marg while returning home from work in her car.

Malik, Kapoor, and Shukla were previously convicted in the 2009 killing of IT executive Jigisha Ghosh. For Ghosh's murder, the trial court sentenced Kapoor and Shukla to death and awarded a life term to Malik. Subsequently, in the following year, the high court commuted the death sentences of Kapoor and Shukla to life imprisonment while upholding Malik's life term in the Ghosh murder case.

Now, Malik and Shukla have filed appeals through advocate Amit Kumar against the trial court’s October 18, 2023, judgement convicting them and November 25, 2023 sentencing.

They have also sought suspension of sentence during the pendency of appeals. Last week, the high court rejected the parole plea of Kapoor.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma had dismissed the plea considering Kapoor's extensive criminal record, the severity of the offences, and his conduct within the jail premises. Kapoor had sought parole for four weeks, citing family ties and a knee surgery.

The court, however, said that he failed to provide any supporting documents for the surgery claim and noted his habitual offender status, being involved in about 20 criminal cases from 2002 to 2010.