Soumya Vishwanathan murder: Delhi court reserves verdict on quantum of sentence for Nov 25

New Delhi, Nov 25:  A Delhi court on Friday reserved its judgement on the quantum of sentence against the convicts in the 2008 murder case of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan.

Additional Sessions Judge Ravindra Kumar Pandey of Saket Courts who was scheduled to hear the arguments on the quantum of sentence against the convicts, reserved his order for November 25.

Last time, the court had taken on record the pre-sentence report (PSR) filed by the probationary officer in the case against five individuals convicted and noted that the verification of the affidavits filed by the convicts was not complete.

On October 18, the court had convicted four accused under MCOCA provisions and one for receiving stolen property. The judge had posted the matter for November 7 after noting that certain documents, including the PSR by the probationary officer, as well as the affidavits of the five convicts, had not yet been filed and ordered the preparation of these reports and affidavits.

Four accused -- Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Baljeet Malik -- have been convicted under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) provisions and Ajay Sethi for receiving stolen property.

On September 30, 2008, Vishwanathan was shot dead on the Nelson Mandela Marg while returning home from work in her car. The accused were arrested in connection with the murder and have been in custody since March 2009. The police had attributed the motive for her killing to robbery, and had invoked the stringent MCOCA against the accused.

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's murder case.