Tattoo, Stolen Watch, Techie Murder Probe: How Cops Cracked Soumya Vishwanathan Case

A Delhi Court passed its verdict in the 2008 Soumya Vishwanathan murder case, convicting all the accused.

Parents of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, who was shot dead in 2008, outside Saket Court on Wednesday.

New Delhi: A hand tattoo, a stolen wireless set, CCTV footage and the investigation into the killing of an IT professional led police to solve the murder case of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan. A Delhi Court passed its verdict in the 2008 murder case, convicting all the accused on Wednesday.

Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Baljeet Malik were convicted on charges of running an organised crime syndicate for murder and other offences. The fifth accused Ajay Sethi was convicted under Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) provisions for conspiring to abet, help or knowingly facilitate organised crime and receiving the proceeds of the crime.

IT professional Jigisha Ghosh was looted and murdered on March 18, 2009.

"The murder case of Jigisha was solved two-three days after her body was recovered from Suraj Kund area in Faridabad. We had got the first lead from a CCTV footage where we found one of the accused was having a tattoo on his hand, while shopping using Jigisha's debit card. Another was carrying a wireless set and wearing a cap," Investigating Officer of the case Atul Kumar Verma told PTI.

Based on their intel, police reached the house of Malik, and Kapoor and Shukla were arrested soon after.

Police said accused Malik had his name tattooed on his arm while Kapoor had a wireless set which he had snatched from a police officer.

"They revealed that they kidnapped Jigisha from near her house in Vasant Vihar and later killed and dumped her body after looting her. They also did shopping using her debit cards. We were a bit shocked when Ravi Kapoor himself revealed that they had committed the murder of another girl at Nelson Mandela Marg, which was not very far from Vasant Vihar,” Verma told the news agency.

Following these inputs, another team was formed to probe both the murders.

“Since we had just confession of the accused for Soumya murder case, the major challenge before us was to collect forensic evidence as well,” Verma said.

On the night of the incident, all four accused, who were drunk, were on a Maruti Wagon R car. Kapoor was driving the car, Shukla sat next to him, while Malik and Kumar were sitting on the rear seat, police said.

"On September 30, a car zoomed past their vehicle. It was a Maruti Zen which Soumya was driving back to her home in Vasant Kunj. She was returning from TV Today's office then located at Videocon Tower in Karol Bagh. On seeing a woman driver overtaking them and that she was alone, they raised the speed of their vehicle and came closer to her car. First, they tried to waylaid her, and when she did not stop her car, Kapoor opened fire at Vishwanathan's vehicle. The bullet hit her in the temple leaving her spot dead,” another officer, OP Thakur told PTI.