Delhi High Court Denies Parole To Convict In Journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, Jigisha Ghosh Murder Cases

The Delhi High Court has denied parole to Ravi Kapoor, convicted for the murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan and IT executive Jigisha Ghosh and various other cases.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma dismissed Kapoor's plea taking into account his criminal history, the gravity of the offence committed by him and his overall conduct inside the jail premises.

Kapoor, who is currently serving life sentence in the cases, had moved the plea seeking parole for four weeks on the ground of maintaining social ties with his family and for undergoing a knee surgery.

When the plea was moved last year, he was undergoing life sentence in the murder case of Jigisha Ghosh in the year 2009. He was convicted by the trial court in July 2016 and was awarded death sentence. However, the sentence was commuted to life sentence.

The State vehemently opposed the plea and submitted that during pendency of the writ petition, Kapoor was convicted in another case of murdering journalist Soumya Vishwanathan in the year 2008. The trial court convicted him in October last year for the offence of murder and also under the stringent MCOCA.

The status report indicated that Kapoor was involved in 20 other criminal cases, including cases pertaining to murder, robbery, theft as well as offences under Arms Act.

Dismissing Kapoor's plea, the court said that though the Supreme Court has emphasized the need to respect rights of the convicts of being released on parole but Courts are also bound to consider the counterbalancing public interest while deciding such cases, in the given facts and circumstances of a case.

The court said that neither any document or material in support of undergoing a knee surgery was placed on record by Kapoor, nor any arguments on the said aspect were addressed.

“…this Court notes that the petitioner herein is a habitual offender, who has been involved in about 20 criminal cases between the period 2002 to 2010, and has been convicted in two cases involving commission of offences such as murder and robbery, and the most recent conviction being in October, 2023. Though his conduct inside jail remains satisfactory for last few years, the overall jail conduct has been unsatisfactory owing to as many as 41 major punishments being awarded to him,” the court said.

However, Justice Sharma clarified that the observations shall not influence the outcome of any future application seeking parole or furlough moved by Kapoor before competent authorities.

Title: RAVI KAPOOR v. STATE-NCT OF DELHI

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 54

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