Supreme Court Issues Notice On Delhi Police's Plea Challenging Bail Granted To Convicts In Journalist Soumya Vishwanathan Murder Case

The Bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma were hearing the SLP against the Delhi High Court's order granting bail to the accused and suspending the sentence of all four convicts until their appeals against conviction were decided.

Previously, the Top Court had a issued notice in a petition filed by Vishwanathan's mother, challenging aforesaid order of the Delhi High Court. Initially, the bench was not inclined to issue notice and said, "Let the appeal be decided. This is only interim." However, the Counsel, appearing for the mother, tried persuading the bench and submitted that these accused were involved in organised crimes and were awarded double life sentences. In view of this, the notice was finally issued.

Viswanathan, a 25-year-old journalist who was working at English news Channel, was shot dead on September 30, 2008. She was returning to her home from work in her car late in the night when the tragic incident took place.

Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar were awarded double life imprisonments by the Special Court last November, more than 15 years after Soumya was killed in 2008. They were convicted for the offence of Murder under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for committing organised crime resulting in the death of any person. Their sentences were to run consequently.

Pursuant to this, the convicts moved to the Delhi High Court, challenging their conviction and sentence of life imprisonment. Apart from this, they had also filed applications moved by the convicts seeking suspension of sentence during the pendency of the appeal.

The High Court allowed these applications, noting that convicts have undergone around 14 years of incarceration.

Out of the four convicts in question, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, and Baljeet Malik were also convicted in the 2009 IT professional Jigisha Ghosh murder case.

Later, the trio disclosed to police during cross-examination that they had also shot dead television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan when she was driving home after the night shift in her office. The Delhi Police claimed that the motive behind her murder was robbery.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju had appeared for the Delhi government.

Case Details: THE STATE NCT OF DELHI Versus AMIT SHUKLA., SLP(Crl) No. 8044/2024