New Delhi:

The mother of television journalist Soumya Viswanathan has moved the Supreme Court against granting bail to four life-sentenced convicts in her daughter’s 2008 murder case.

The Delhi High Court on February 12 stayed the stay against Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik and Ajay Ajay Kumar and granted them bail pending their appeal against their conviction and sentence.

Kapoor, Shukla and Malik were also convicted in the Jijisha Ghosh murder case in 2009 and are still in jail.

Vishwanathan, who worked for a leading English-language news channel, was shot dead while driving home from work on Nelson Mandela Avenue in south Delhi in the early hours of September 30, 2008.

The Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal, is likely to hear the case of Soumya’s mother Madhavi Viswanathan Madhavi Viswanathan.

While granting reduced sentences to the convicts, the High Court also noted that they had been imprisoned for 14 years.

The High Court on January 23 asked the Delhi Police to respond to the appeal filed by the four convicts.

The special court on November 26, 2023, sentenced Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla ( Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Ajay Kumar were given two life sentences. Committing organized crime and causing death of any person) Maharashtra Organized Crime Control Act (MCOCA).

The court made it clear that the sentence would be enforced “continuously.”

The fifth convict, Ajay Sethi, was sentenced to three years simple imprisonment under IPC Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen goods).

However, it compared Sethi’s three-year sentence with the time Sethi had already served, noting that he had been in custody for more than 14 years and was serving a sentence for conspiracy to abet, aid or knowingly facilitate and receive orders under the IPC and MCOCA Proceeds of organized crime.

Kapoor’s lawyers said he had been detained for the past 14 years and nine months and urged the court to suspend the sentence while an appeal is pending.

Amit Kumar, the lawyer representing Shukla, Malik and Ajay Kumar, also offered a similar prayer for reprieve.

The trial court, while sentencing Kapoor, Shukla, Malik and Kumar to double life imprisonment, also imposed a fine of Rs 1.25 lakh each on them. It imposed a fine of Rs 7.25 lakh on Sethi.

Among the four convicts, Kapoor, Shukla and Malik were also convicted for the murder of IT professional Jijitha Ghosh. The trio later admitted to the police that they were also behind Vishwanathan’s murder and the weapon used to kill her was recovered from their possession.

Delhi Police said the motive for Vishwanathan’s killing was robbery.

The trial court sentenced Kapoor and Shukla to death and sentenced Malik to life imprisonment in the Jijisha Ghosh murder case.

However, the High Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment. The High Court upheld Malik’s life sentence.

According to the prosecution, Kapoor shot Vishwanathan with a country-made pistol when he chased her car to rob her. Shukla, Kumar and Malik were also with Kapoor.

Police recovered the car used in the murder from Sethi, also known as Chacha.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)