Madhavi Vishwanathan, the mother of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, expressed satisfaction but not happiness with the court's judgment on Saturday (November 25). The Delhi court sentenced four convicts to life imprisonment for the murder of Soumya, while the fifth convict received a three-year jail term.
"I wanted this. What I am suffering, I want them to suffer for life. I am satisfied, but I will not say that I am happy. My husband is in ICU. He had a bypass surgery," Madhavi was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. During the court proceedings, the judge asked the victim's mother if she had any submissions, to which she responded, "Justice must be done".
The court had denied the request to sentence the murderers to death, stating that the case did not fall into the category of rare cases.
Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar were sentenced to life in prison and fined Rs 1.25 lakh each. Ajay Sethi, the fifth convict, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined Rs 7.25 lakh. He had already served more than 14 years in prison, according to the court.
On October 18, the court found Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar guilty of committing organised crime that resulted in the death of any person under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code section 302 (murder) and the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Soumya Vishwanathan, employed by a leading English news channel, was shot dead in the early hours of September 30, 2008, on south Delhi’s Nelson Mandela Marg while returning home from work. The police claimed that the motive behind the crime was robbery.
According to the prosecution, Ravi Kapoor shot Vishwanathan with a home-made pistol on her way home from work. Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar, and Baljeet Malik accompanied him. He shot Vishwanathan on Nelson Mandela Marg in South Delhi while attempting to rob the victim's car. The murder vehicle was recovered from the fifth accused, Ajay Sethi alias Chacha.