Soumya Vishwanathan (1982–2008) was an Indian journalist who was assassinated on 30 September 2008 in Vasant Kunj, Delhi.
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Wiki/Biography
Soumya Vishwanathan was born on Wednesday, 8 December 1982 (age 25 at the time of death) in New Delhi. His zodiac sign was Sagittarius.
Childhood photo of Soumya Vishwanathan
She pursued her graduation in journalism from Kamla Nehru College, affiliated with Delhi University, and later studied broadcast journalism at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal, Odisha.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 3″
Hair Color: Black
Eye colour: black
Soumya Vishwanathan with her father
Family
parents and siblings
His father MK Vishwanathan worked with Voltas. He is a resident of Kuttippuram, Kerala. His mother, Madhavi Vishwanathan, worked as a lecturer at Delhi University before later joining a private firm. His elder sister, Shubha Vishwanath, lives in Nairobi, Kenya.
Soumya Vishwanathan with her parents
Soumya Vishwanathan’s parents outside Saket court in 2016
Soumya Vishwanathan with her father MK Vishwanathan and sister Subha Mehta
husband and children
She was unmarried.
livelihood
In February 2008, she joined Headlines Today (now India Today), where she worked as a news producer before she was killed in September 2008. On the day of her murder, she had stayed in the office as she was working on a news story. On two bomb blasts, one in Malegaon, Maharashtra and the other in Gujarat. Before this, she had also worked in CNN-IBN.
Soumya Vishwanathan Murder Case
On 30 September 2008, Soumya was murdered near her home in Vasant Kunj, Delhi. She was found dead in her car (Maruti Zen) with a bullet wound on her head. She was working as a news producer in Headlines Today news channel. That night, she stayed up late to help with a breaking news program. She left her office in Jhandewalan at 3:03 am and started walking towards her home in Vasant Kunj. While going back, Saumya overtook a WagonR which was carrying four people, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Akshay Kumar. The four men saw that the woman driver who overtook them was alone and started chasing her. They asked Soumya to stop the car, but she was listening to music and did not hear them. As a result, Kapoor opened fire at him with a country-made weapon (desi katta). The bullet hit his head and he died instantly. Meanwhile, the car stopped after hitting the divider on Nelson Mandela Road. Around 3.45 pm, an employee of a nearby restaurant saw Soumya’s car and called the police. Soumya was taken to AIIMS, where she was declared brought dead. At first, the killers fled the scene, but they returned 20 minutes later to check the condition of the victim. When they saw the police at the scene, they ran away again. The case was investigated under HGS Dhaliwal, a police officer of Delhi South district.
Soumya Vishwanathan’s parents, MK Vishwanathan and Madhavi Vishwanathan, with IPS officer HGS Dhaliwal
In March 2009, while investigating the murder of another woman named Jigisha Ghosh, the police made a breakthrough in Soumya’s murder case. Ghosh was murdered and robbed by Ravi Kapoor and his gang. The police traced the transactions done using Jigisha’s stolen ATM card and led them to the killers. The killers used it to buy shoes, TV and watches in Saket and Sarojini Nagar. Police found a blurry CCTV footage, in which three suspects are seen buying a watch. In the footage, they found that one of the accused was of good build and had a tattoo on his left wrist and the other had a wireless set and was wearing a cap. Soon, a police team started visiting gyms in Vasant Vihar, Vasant Kunj, Malviya Nagar and Saket. A gym instructor in Masoodpur village of Vasant Kunj identified Baljeet Malik alias Poppy. Malik had his name tattooed on his arm, while Kapoor carried a wireless set that he had snatched from a police officer. As a result, the murderers were arrested. During interrogation, Malik confessed that he was involved in the murder of another woman, who turned out to be Soumya. In 2017, the trial court sentenced Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla to death and Baljeet Malik to life imprisonment in the Jigisha Ghosh murder case. However, in 2018, the Delhi HC commuted the death sentences of Kapoor and Shukla. It took fifteen years to bring him to justice. On October 13, 2023, a Delhi court convicted five people in the murder case of Soumya. The four accused, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Akshay Kumar, were convicted of murder and robbery. They faced charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) as well as murder (Section 302), dacoity (Section 390) and common intention (Section 34) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Fifth, Ajay Sethi was convicted of helping others.
Main accused of Soumya murder case
Main accused in Soumya Vishwanathan’s murder case
Ravi Kapoor
Until his arrest in March 2009, Ravi Kapoor was reportedly known as a car thief and police informer. Kapoor and his gang had killed TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, IT executive Jigisha Ghosh and a cab driver in an area of South Delhi. Kapoor often disguised himself as a policeman, judge or doctor. Kapoor and his gang would avoid suspicion by pretending to be police informers and driving official police vehicles. Therefore, when he and his associates committed three murders, the police did not even suspect him. He would often hang out with some South Delhi policemen, feed them false information and cleverly obtain investigation updates from them. Knowing how the investigation was progressing, he stayed ahead of the police at every step.
Amit Shukla
Reportedly, Shukla left Delhi two days after Vishwanathan’s murder in 2008 and returned to Delhi only a week before Ghosh’s murder in 2009.
Baljeet Malik
Malik, also known as Poppy, was the man whose confession gave the police a much-needed breakthrough in the murder case. When Malik, Kapoor and Shukla were in police custody in connection with Ghosh’s murder, they confessed to their involvement in Soumya’s murder in 2008.
Ajay Kumar
Ajay Kumar was still absconding until he was arrested in 2009. In 2010, during one of his court hearings at the Patiala House Court Complex, Kumar allegedly attacked Ajay Sethi, another accused in the case, with a blade.
Ajay Sethi
Delhi Police said that Sethi was not directly involved in the murder. Sethi dealt in stolen vehicles and claimed that he was unaware that the stolen vehicle that Kapoor was trying to sell him was used in Vishwanathan’s murder. He was a resident of Dehradun and was living in Faridabad at the time of the murder and was arrested in April 2009.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn