 "Soumya Vishwanathan")
The Delhi High Court on Monday allowed the suspension of life sentences of the four convicts in the murder case of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan. The court allowed their plea for suspension of the sentence — bail till the pendency of the appeal.
The lawyers of the convicts — Baljeet Malik, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla and Ajay Kumar — argued that they have been behind bars for more than 14 years.
These four of the five convicts in Vishwanathan's murder case were sentenced to life in prison in November last year, while the fifth convict, Ajay Sethi, was given three years in jail.
The court of Additional Sessions judge Ravindra Kumar Pandey also imposed a fine of Rs 1,25,000 on all the convicts. The court had also ordered that of the total fine amount imposed on the convicts, Rs 12,00,000 will be paid to the victim's family.
Addressing the demand for the death penalty to the accused, the court had noted that their offence does not fall in the category of rarest of rare cases.
Soumya Vishwanathan's murder
Soumya Vishwanathan, a journalist working with a leading English news channel, was shot dead on south Delhi's Nelson Mandela Marg in the early hours of September 30, 2008, while returning home from work. According to police, the motive behind the murder was a robbery.
Police had claimed that the motive behind the murder was a robbery. On October 18, 2023, the court convicted the four accused under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 302 (murder) and Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) provisions.
Ajay Sethi, the fifth accused, was convicted under IPC section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property and MCOCA provisions.
