The Supreme Court on Monday did not immediately stay the bail granted by the Delhi High Court to four men serving a double life sentence for the cold-blooded murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan in the national capital while she was returning home from work in 2008.
A Bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal however issued notice to the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the four convicts — Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik and Ajay Kumar — on the petition filed by Ms. Vishwanathan’s mother challenging the bail order and the suspension of sentence of the convicts.
The court listed the case after two weeks for hearing.
The Delhi High Court had granted the men bail during the pendency of their appeals against their conviction and sentence in the case. It had also suspended their prison sentence.
Justice Trivedi initially asked Ms. Vishwanathan’s mother, Madhavi, to approach the High Court with a plea to expeditiously hear and decide the appeals. The judge orally remarked that the four men had served more than 14 years of their sentence.
Kapoor, Shukla, and Malik were also convicted of killing IT professional Jigisha Ghosh in 2009. The trio had later confessed to shooting dead Ms. Vishwanathan in the early hours of September 30, 2008, on Nelson Mandela Marg in South Delhi. They had intended to rob her. The weapon, a country-made hand gun, was recovered from them.
On Monday, advocate Malini Poduval, for Madhavi Vishwanathan, said these men would become a menace to the society again on their release on bail. There would be other innocents like her daughter whose lives would be in danger from them.
“They were serving a double life sentence. They were also convicted under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. They were part of an organised crime syndicate… My daughter was coming back from work. She was innocent. She had not offended these men in any way. The same people had killed another young woman, Jigisha… No conditions were imposed on their bail,” Ms. Poduval argued for the bereaved mother.
A special court had on November 26, 2023, awarded two life terms to Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3(1)(i) (committing organised crime resulting in the death of any person) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
The court had made it clear that the sentences would run “consecutively”.
A fifth convict, Ajay Sethi, was handed down three years of simple imprisonment under Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
It, however, set off the three-year sentence against the time Sethi had already served, noting he that he had remained in custody for more than 14 years and underwent incarceration during the trial for offences under the IPC and MCOCA for conspiring to abet, aid, or knowingly facilitate organised crime and receiving proceeds of organised crime.
According to the prosecution, Kapoor shot Ms. Vishwanathan with a country-made pistol while chasing her car to rob her. Shukla, Kumar, and Malik were also with Kapoor. Police had recovered the car used in the murder from Sethi.
