New Delhi
The Delhi High Court has requested a response from Delhi Police on the appeals filed by four men convicted in the 2008 murder case of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan. Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Saket court in November, while Ajay Sethi received a three-year term. Malik and Shukla, through their advocate Amit Kumar, filed appeals challenging the trial court’s verdict and sought suspension of their sentence during the appeal process. The court scheduled the hearing for February 12 and asked authorities to file a reply to the convicts’ interim application. The high court had recently rejected Kapoor’s parole plea, considering his extensive criminal record and the severity of the offences. The convicts were charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for the murder of Soumya Vishwanathan, a TV journalist shot dead on September 30, 2008, while returning home from work. The court had previously convicted Malik, Kapoor, and Shukla in the 2009 killing of IT executive Jigisha Ghosh, sentencing Kapoor and Shukla to death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment by the high court. The recent appeal challenges the trial court’s order and seeks a reevaluation of the convictions in the Soumya Vishwanathan murder case.
