• By Mayukh Debnath
  • Mon, 08 Jul 2024 01:44 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND
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Soumya Vishwanathan Murder Case: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine the petitions moved by Delhi Police challenging the high court's grant of bail to the four convicts who were awarded life imprisonment in the murder case of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan. A division bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma sought replies from the convicts on the pleas filed by the police and tagged them with the pending petition of Soumya's mother against the bail order, news agency PTI reported.

Soumya Vishwanathan Murder: Pleas Against Bail

Soumya's mother, Madhavi Vishwanathan, had approached the apex court, challenging the Delhi High Court's February 12 order, which suspended the convicts' sentence and granted bail to them till the pendency of their appeal challenging their conviction and sentence. The convicts are Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik, and Ajay Kumar, out of whom Kapoor, Shukla, and Malik were convicted in the 2009 Jigisha Ghosh murder case as well.

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Vishwanathan, who worked with an English news channel, was shot dead in the early hours of September 30, 2008, on Nelson Mandela Marg in south Delhi while she was returning home from work in her car. Last year, a special court awarded double life terms to Kapoor, Shukla, Malik, and Kumar after finding them guilty of murder and causing death by committing organized crime.

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The trial court had made it clear that the sentences would run "consecutively". Challenging the trial court verdict, the convicts approached the Delhi High Court. They had also filed applications seeking suspension of sentence during the pendency of the appeal. While granting relief to the convicts, the high court noted that they had been in custody for 14 years. Highlighting the two life terms awarded to the convicts, Soumya's mother has sought the top court's intervention.

(With inputs from agencies)