The Delhi High Court has granted bail to four convicts serving life imprisonment in the case of the murder of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan. Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain suspended the sentence of Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Singh Malik, and Ajay Kumar until the appeals challenging their conviction and sentence are pending. Noting that the convicts have been in custody for 14 years, the court directed the Delhi Police to respond to the appeals filed by the four convicts, as per the order issued on January 23.
Vishwanathan, a journalist with a leading English news channel, was shot dead in south Delhi on September 30, 2008. A special court had earlier awarded two life terms to Kapoor, Shukla, Malik, and Kumar under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3(1)(i) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). While Kapoor’s counsel argued for the suspension of his sentence citing his 14-year incarceration, similar requests were made for Shukla, Malik, and Kumar. The trial court had imposed fines and awarded sentences to the convicts, but the high court recently denied parole to Kapoor considering the gravity of the offences.
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