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In a rare order, a Delhi court has handed down double rigorous life imprisonment to four members of an organised crime syndicate for killing TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan around 15 years ago here.
The special court awarded two life imprisonments to Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Ajay Kumar under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and U/s 3 (1) (1) of The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (committing organised crime resulting in the death of any person) and made clear that they will run “consecutively”.
Vishwanathan, who was working with a leading English news channel, was shot dead in the early hours of September 30, 2008, on south Delhi’s Nelson Mandela Marg while she was returning home from work. The special court did not agree to the vehement submissions of the prosecution seeking the death penalty, saying the act of the four convicts to murder the victim does not fall within the category of “rarest of rare cases”.
