Soumya Vishwanathan Murder Case: Life Imprisonment For 4 Convicts

The Saket Court in Delhi sentenced four convicts in the 2008 murder of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan to life in prison on Saturday, while the fifth was sentenced to three years in prison.

As per a PTI report, the court decided that the crime did not meet the criteria for the rarest of rare cases, hence dismissing the plea for the death penalty.

Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar were all sentenced to life imprisonment, while Ajay Sethi, the fifth convict, was given a three-year term of simple imprisonment.

Earlier, on November 7, the court had postponed the proceedings due to pending verification of affidavits submitted by the convicts. Nevertheless, the judge accepted the pre-sentence report filed by the probationary officer.

This case dates back to October 18, when Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar were convicted under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code along with provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Soumya Vishwanathan, employed at a prominent English news channel, was fatally shot on September 30, 2008, while returning home from work along Nelson Mandela Marg in south Delhi. Police asserted the motive behind the killing was robbery.