Soumya murder case: 4 convicts given life terms

A Delhi court on Saturday sentenced four of the five convicts to two life imprisonments in the 2008 murder of 25-year-old TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan.

- Deepankar Malviya

The court found the four accused guilty of murder and awarded life imprisonment to Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Ajay Kumar under sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and sections pertaining to organised crime resulting in the death of any person of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA). It directed that the two sentences run consecutively.

The court refused to grant death penalty observing that the act does not fall within the category of "rarest of rare".

"The Court is of the view that the present case and the act of the convicts Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik and Ajay Kumar @ Ajay to murder the victim do not fall within the category of rare of rarest cases category in which the death penalty can be imposed," it said. The court also imposed a fine of ₹1.25 lakh on each of the four.

The court sentenced the fifth convict, Ajay Sethi, to three years imprisonment under IPC Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and imposed a fine of ₹7.25 lakh on him. The court set off the sentence awarded to Sethi, noting that he had already undergone more than 14 years of imprisonment in the case while the trial was going on.

It ordered that ₹12 lakh of the total fine amount imposed on the convicts be paid to the victim's family.