Soumya Vishwanathan was shot dead in Delhi. Police stumbled onto her killers while looking into another murder

Breakthrough in Vishwanathan’s case came while police were looking into murder of Jigisha Ghosh

File Police keep vigil at an empty street in New Delhi in 2021 as the Indian capital (AFP via Getty Images)

Journalist Soumya Vishwanathan was driving home at 3am after finishing a busy shift at work on the night of 30 September 2008 when a car began to follow her.

As Vishwanathan, a news producer with the Headlines Today television channel, attempted to dodge the car, its occupants fired multiple shots at her with a locally-made gun, hitting her in the head and causing her instant death.

Her car crashed into a divider close to her home in national capital Delhi and the assailants fled the scene. They returned 20 minutes later and left again after seeing a police personnel passing by – oblivious to the crime being committed nearby.

She was found by a staff of a nearby restaurant at 3.45am after he saw her slumped at the wheels with the car’s headlights and engine on. Vishwanathan was rushed to a hospital where she was declared brought dead.

A Delhi court this week convicted four men for the murder of the 25-year-old journalist, marking the conclusion of a case spanning 15 years.

The breakthrough came as the Delhi Police were conducting investigation into the murder case of another woman – IT professional Jigisha Ghosh, who was looted and killed on 18 March 2009.

A tattoo, CCTV footage, and a stolen credit card in the murder of Ghosh led Delhi police to the killers of Vishwanathan.

Investigating officer HGS Dhaliwal said the investigation into the Vishwanathan case became challenging as there was no physical contact between the victim and the killers.

“Only a bullet was fired from a moving vehicle that hit Soumya, killing her,” Mr Dhaliwal told news agency Press Trust of India.

The four accused, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar, were held guilty of murder and committing organised crime resulting in the death of a person. A fifth accused Ajay Sethi was convicted for receiving stolen property and helping in the crime.

Officer Atul Kumar Verma who was investigating the murder and robbery said the case was solved three days after Ghosh’s body was found in Faridabad.

“We had got the first lead from CCTV footage where we found one of the accused had a tattoo on his hand while shopping using Jigisha’s debit card. Another was carrying a wireless set and wearing a cap," officer Verma told PTI.

Following the arrest of Kapoor and Shukla, the two were questioned during which they revealed they had committed another murder of a woman in Vasant Kunj – where Vishwanathan stayed – along with their two other associates.

The investigators who had their confession on record faced another major challenge – collecting forensic evidence.

The police said they worked to recover the weapon from which Vishwanathan was shot and detailed a forensic sketch of the spot to match sequence of events with the confession statement of the accused.

The final judgment came as a relief to her parents after enduring a trial involving 300 hearings and 97 witness testimonies. Her mother, Madhavi Vishwanathan, 79, who went through the gruelling and long trial, said she wanted the culprits to suffer as they did.

“We lost our daughter,” she said. “The quantum of sentence is yet to be decided but I don’t want the death penalty for them; they should serve a life sentence and suffer like we did throughout these years.”

She told the Indian Express that their life has been a never-ending ordeal after the death of their daughter.

“We have kept Soumya’s room the way it was with all the photos from her school and college days on the walls… it gives us a feeling that she’s still with us,” she said.

“The order will serve as a befitting response to anyone who might be thinking of repeating this act”.

Her father, MK Vishwanathan, 82-year-old now, called her daughter a hard working journalist.

“If you ask me if I’m happy today, I’ll tell you that justice has been done but nothing will bring back our daughter now… it’s an irreparable loss. My daughter had done nothing wrong to her killers but still they did what they did, and that too so close to our house,” he said.