New Delhi: A ‘bad character’ from Masoodpur was so fed up with the grilling by the investigating team that he accepted that he had along with his associates killed journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, ThePrint has learnt.
Relief turned into disappointment within a couple of moments when teams of the Delhi Police realised it was not the ‘breakthrough’ which they were looking for in their probe into this blind murder case.
The investigating teams were about to formalise the arrest that the man told them he lied because he wanted to get done with the questioning. “I saw it on TV. So I know as much as you guys know,” he said.
Soumya, a journalist with India Today, was found dead inside her car near Nelson Mandela Marg on 30 September 2008. She had left in the wee hours from the studio in Jhandewalan to her house in Vasant Kunj.
The ‘bad character’ was let off by the police but the search for the culprits carried on till March 2009. This suspect was one of the many gang members and criminals of South, South West, and South East Delhi districts rounded up for interrogation in the probe in the Soumya murder case. But, the police could not link even a single suspect to the murder.
In these intervening months, the same gang — which had targeted Soumya — looted an auto driver but spared his life.
Seven months after Soumya’s murder, another woman, IT professional Jigisha Ghosh, was found dead in Surajkund. It is during the investigation in this case that the clues, including CCTV footage retrieved from an ATM and a shop in Sarojini Nagar, led the police to Soumya’s killer.
On Wednesday, a court convicted Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Baljeet Malik for the murder of the television journalist. Ajay Sethi, the fifth accused, was held guilty for the offence of receiving stolen property. The quantum of punishment is yet to be decided.
‘Was hearing music’
Police officer Bhisham Singh had been transferred as ACP Mehrauli from Sarita Vihar posting on the day of Soumya’s murder. He took over the case as the investigating officer.
Soumya, 25, was listening to music on the wheels and this is exactly why she didn’t see the accused asking her to stop the car, Singh, who is now posted as SP (Crime Branch) Aizawl, told ThePrint over the phone.
“They had already decided to rob her. However because she had music on and her eyes were on the road she didn’t see them. Then one of them told Ravi Kapoor — “Dekh teri baat toh koi ladki bhi nahi sunti he (See, even a girl doesn’t listen to you). This is when they decided to teach her a lesson and chased her for 1-2 km. They fired to threaten her and the bullet hit her on the head and she died. They fled from the spot without robbing her,” Singh said.
In March 2009, the accused abducted Jigisha. Probe revealed that Jigisha was on her phone after being dropped by a cab, when they pulled her into the car. They took her belongings and shopped using her ATM card.
Fearing they would be traced, the gang members killed her and later dumped the body in Surajkund. Autopsy revealed she was strangled to death. Later, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla and Baljit Singh Malik were convicted for Jigisha’s murder.
Also Read: ‘Not in favour of death penalty’ — Soumya Vishwanathan’s mother wants convicts to suffer for life
No CCTV on road
After Soumya’s murder, in the next couple of months, police teams led by then ACP Singh started picking up suspects — those with criminal records and those who had recently been out of jail.
The breakthrough took place when the Special Staff of the Delhi Police got hold of three accused — Kapoor, Malik and Shukla — in the Jigisha murder case in March 2009. Malik broke down after sustained interrogation and told the police how they killed Soumya and Jigisha and their entire modus operandi.
The police already had the dossiers of the accused and all of them were arrested.
In the Soumya case, when the PCR call was received, everyone thought it was an accident. “It was only after the autopsy report showed a bullet wound on Soumya’s right forehead that a murder case was registered. We started rounding up all bad characters out of jail in those areas. It was clear that this was a case of murder and attempted robbery. However, nothing concrete came out till March 2009,” Singh said.
But the major hurdle for the police was that there were no CCTV cameras near Nelson Mandela Marg. In Jigisha’s case, the police had stumbled upon footage from inside a store in Sarojini Nagar where the accused had gone shopping with the victim’s ATM card. Footage from the ATM was also scanned, and the killers were identified.
“We recovered the pistol used in Soumya’s case from Kapoor. Forensics proved it was the murder weapon. FSL teams also recreated the entire crime scene,” Singh added.
Kapoor, a one-time car thief, threw chili powder on the police teams while being taken for a medical check up to escape custody, Singh recalled. Shukla, while inside Tihar jail, made an extortion call of Rs 10 lakh, the police officer said. Sethi hasn’t been accused of the murder but charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) with the others.
“This is the third conviction in Delhi for a MCOCA case,” Singh said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)