15 years on, court convicts four for murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, sentencing on Oct 26

Vishwanathan, a 25-year-old working for India Today, was found dead in her car in South Delhi's Nelson Mandela Marg on September 30, 2008.

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday convicted four men for the sensational 2008 murder of TV journalist, Soumya Vishwanathan, when she was returning to home after night duty.

Additional Sessions Judge Ravindra Kumar Pandey said that prosecution has duly proved beyond all reasonable doubt that accused Ravi Kapoor and his other associates co accused Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Baljeet Malik had committed murder of the deceased/victim Saumya Vishwanathan with intention to rob her.

The incident, which occured on September 30, 2008 in between 3.25 am to 03.55 am at Nelson Mandela Marg Road at posh Vasant Vihar here, had shocked the nation.

The four accused were held guilty and convicted for charge of offence punishable under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC.

Another accused Ajay Sethi was convicted of the offence of retaining stolen Wagon R Car used by all the accused in chasing the victim on the fateful night.

All the five accused were also convicted of various offences under the Maharashtra Organised Crime Control Act, as the prosecution proved they indulged in organised crimes for their living.

The prosecution has also duly proved beyond all reasonable doubt that accused Ajay Sethi abetted or knowingly facilitated the commission of crime by the organised crime syndicate led by accused Ravi Kapoor having its other members/co accused Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, Ajay Kumar," the court said.

The judge fixed October 26 as the date for pronouncing the order on sentence.

Initially this case was believed to be a car accident until forensic reports disclosed her cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head.

The five men convicted by the court have been in custody since March 2009. They were represented by advocate Amit Kumar and others.

As per the Police, the journalist's murder case was cracked after the recovery of the weapon used in another case in which an IT executive, Jigisha Ghosh was murdered.