NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will on July 8 hear the Delhi Police’s petition challenging the bail granted by the Delhi High Court to four life convicts in the 2008 TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan murder case.
The Supreme Court registry admitted the Delhi Police’s appeal on June 12, 2024. The apex court will reopen on July 8 after summer vacations. Earlier on April 22, a bench led by Justice Trivedi had issued notice to Delhi Police and the four convicts—Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik, and Ajay Kumar—on the appeal filed by Soumya’s mother, Madhavi Vishwanathan, challenging the release of the four convicts.
Considering that all four convicts had already served 14 years and nine months of imprisonment, the High Court suspended their sentences on February 12 and granted bail. Soumya’s mother challenged this decision before the top court.
Soumya, a TV journalist working in an English news channel, was fatally shot 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. Delhi Police has claimed that the motive behind the murder was robbery. All four convicts were apprehended and convicted under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) to life imprisonment by the trial court in November last year.
The four convicts challenged the trial court’s order before the HC, which was hearing their appeal against their conviction and sentences. In the meantime, the HC granted bail and suspended the sentences until their appeal was heard fully.