Saumya Vishwanathan (1982-2008) was an Indian journalist who was murdered on 30 September 2008 in Vasant Kunj, Delhi.
Wiki/Biography
Saumya Vishwanathan was born on Wednesday, December 8, 1982 in New Delhi (age 25; time of death). Her zodiac sign is Sagittarius.
Saumya Vishwanathan childhood photos
She graduated in journalism from Kamala Nehru College, Delhi University and later studied broadcast journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal, Odisha.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′3″
Hair color: black
Eye color: black
Saumya Vishwanathan and her father
family
Parents and siblings
Her father MK Vishwanathan worked with Voltas. He hails from Kudipuram, Kerala. Her mother, Madhavi Vishwanathan, worked as a lecturer at Delhi University and later moved to a private company. Her sister Shubha Viswanath lives in Nairobi, Kenya.
Saumya Vishwanathan and her parents
Soumya Vishwanathan’s parents outside Saket court in 2016
Saumya Vishwanathan with her father MK Vishwanathan and sister Subha Mehta
husband and children
She is unmarried.
Profession
In February 2008, she joined Toutiao (now India Today) as a news producer before being killed in September 2008. On the day of the murder, she stayed in her office to prepare news reports on two bomb blasts, one in Malegaon, Maharashtra, and the other in Gujarat. Previously, she also worked at CNN-IBN.
Soumya Vishwanathan murder case
Soumya was killed on September 30, 2008, near her home in Vasant Kunj, Delhi. She was found dead in her car, a Maruti Zen, with a gunshot wound to the head. She was a news producer at the “Today’s Headlines” news channel. That night, she stayed up late to help with a breaking news incident. At 3:03 am, she left her office in Jhandewalan and started driving to her home in Vasant Kunj. On the way back, Soumya overtook a WagonR with four men in it: Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljit Malik and Akshay Kumar. The four men noticed that the female driver who passed them was alone and began to follow her. They asked Soumya to stop the car but she was listening to music and did not hear them. As a result, Kapoor shot her with a country-made weapon (Desi Katta). The bullet struck her in the head, killing her instantly. At the same time, the car hit the guardrail on Nelson Mandela Avenue and came to a stop. At around 3.45am, staff at a nearby restaurant who was cycling home noticed Soumya’s car and called the police. Soumya was rushed to AIIMS where she was declared dead. The killers initially fled the scene, but returned 20 minutes later to check on the victim. When they saw the police at the crime scene, they ran away again. The investigation of the case is headed by HGS Dhaliwal, police officer of South Delhi district.
Soumya Vishwanathan’s parents MK Vishwanathan and Madhavi Vishwanathan with IPS officer HGS Dhaliwal
A breakthrough in the Soumya murder case came in March 2009 when police were investigating the murder of another woman, Jigisha Ghosh. Ghosh was murdered and robbed by Ravi Kapoor and his gang. Police tracked down the murderer by tracing transactions made on Gigisha’s stolen ATM card. The murderer used the money to buy shoes, televisions and watches in Saket and Sarojini Nagar. Police discovered grainy CCTV footage showing three suspects buying watches. In the video, they found one of the defendants was of heavy build and had a tattoo on his left wrist, while the other was carrying radio equipment and wearing a hat. Soon, police teams started inspecting gyms in Vasant Vihar, Vasant Kunj, Malviya Nagar and Saket. A fitness trainer in Masoodpur village of Vasant Kunj confirmed that Baljeet Malik’s alias is Poppy. Malik had his name engraved on his hand, while Kapoor carried radio equipment stolen from the police. As a result, the murderer was arrested. During interrogation, Malik admitted their involvement in the murder of another woman, Soumya. In 2017, the trial court sentenced Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla to death and sentenced Baljit Malik to life imprisonment in the Jijisha Ghosh murder case. However, in 2018, the Delhi High Court commuted the death sentences of Kapoor and Shukla. It took fifteen years to bring them to justice. On October 13, 2023, a Delhi court convicted five men for Soumya’s murder. The four accused Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljit Malik and Akshay Kumar were found guilty of murder and robbery. They face charges under the stringent Maharashtra Organized Crime Control Act (MCOCA), as well as charges of murder (Section 302), robbery (Section 390) and common intention (Section 390) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Article 34) Charges. A fifth man, Ajay Sethi, was found guilty of helping others.
Main accused in Soumya murder case
Main accused in Soumya Vishwanathan murder case
Ravi Kapoor
Ravi Kapoor was reportedly a car thief and police informant until his arrest in March 2009. Kapoor and his gang murdered TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, IT executive Jigisha Ghosh and a taxi driver on a south Delhi road. Kapoor often disguised himself as a police officer, judge or doctor. Kapoor and his gang would evade suspicion by posing as police informants and driving official police cars. So when he and his companions committed the three murders, the police had no suspicion of him. They used to hang out with some policemen in South Delhi, feed them wrong information and subtly get the latest investigation information from them. They know the progress of the investigation and are ahead of the police every step of the way.
Amit Shukla
Shukla reportedly left Delhi two days after Vishwanathan was killed in 2008 and returned to Delhi a week before Ghosh was murdered in 2009.
Baljit Malik
Malik, also known as Poppy, gave police a much-needed break in the murder case. When Malik, Kapoor and Shukla were in police custody over the killings of Ghosh, he confessed to his involvement in the 2008 Soumya murder case.
Ajay Kumar
Ajay Kumar remained on the run until his arrest in 2009. In 2010, during a court hearing at the Patiala House Court Complex, Kumar reportedly attacked Ajay Sethi, another accused in the case, with a blade .
Ajay Sethi
Delhi Police reported that Sethi was not directly involved in the murder. Sethi dealt in stolen vehicles and claimed he had no idea that the stolen vehicle Kapoor tried to sell him was used in Vishwanathan’s murder. Hailing from Dehradun, he was living in Faridabad at the time of the murder and was arrested in April 2009.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education