How a tattoo and wireless set led law enforcement to the killers of Soumya Vishwanathan
Officials stated on Wednesday that Delhi Police was able to solve the murder of IT professional Jigisha Ghosh and identify the assassins of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan thanks to evidence including a hand tattoo, a wireless device pilfered from a policeman, and CCTV footage.
Afterwards, after being detained in 2009 for the alleged 2009 murder of Ghosh, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, and Baljeet Malik admitted to their role in the 2008 killing of Vishwanathan.
Four members of an organized criminal syndicate—Kapoor, Shukla, Malik, and Ajay Kumar—were found guilty by a Delhi court on Wednesday of murder and other offenses related to the death of Vishwanathan.
Additionally, Ajay Sethi, the fifth accused, was found guilty by the court of planning to aid, abet, or knowingly support organized crime as well as accepting its proceeds under section 411 of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
After the three made confessional admissions, the Delhi Police detained Ajay Kumar and Ajay Sethi and filed charges against the five of them for the September 30, 2008, murder of Vishwanathan as she was leaving her workplace.
March 18, 2009, saw the murder and looting of Ghosh.
“Two or three days after Jigisha’s body was found in the Suraj Kund neighborhood of Faridabad, the murder case was solved. The first lead came from a CCTV clip, which showed us that one of the suspects was purchasing with Jigisha’s debit card and had a tattoo on his hand. Another was wearing a headgear and holding a wireless set, Atul Kumar Verma, the case’s investigating officer, informed PTI.
The officers then diligently worked on the human intelligence network of Delhi Police, and soon the police team arrived at Malik’s Masoodpur home. Afterwards, Shukla and Kapoor were taken into custody.
While Kapoor used to carry a wireless set that he had taken from a police officer, Malik had his name inscribed on his hand.
“They disclosed that after robbing Jigisha of her belongings and killing her, they abducted her from the vicinity of her Vasant Vihar home. Verma added, “They used her debit cards for shopping as well.”
Verma was in charge of a group of police officers from the Vasant Vihar station.
“We were a bit shocked when Ravi Kapoor himself revealed that they had committed the murder of another girl at Nelson Mandela Marg, which was not very far from Vasant Vihar,” Verma continued. He added that Ajay Kumar and Ajay Sethi, two more acquaintances, had also participated in the murder.
HGS Dhaliwal, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) at the time, assembled a new team of officers right away and designated then ACP Bhisham Singh to investigate both murder cases.
Singh stated to PTI, “Since we had just confession of the accused for Soumya murder case, the major challenge before us was to collect forensic evidence as well.” According to authorities, Shukla was seated next to Kapoor while he drove a Maruti Wagon R on the night that Vishwanathan was slain. The back seat was occupied by Malik and Kumar. The cops claimed that they were all inebriated.
“On September 30, an automobile passed their car at a high speed. Soumya was returning to her house in Vasant Kunj in a Maruti Zen. She was on her way back from TV Today’s office, which was at the time housed in Karol Bagh’s Videocon Tower,” stated O P Thakur, another investigator and officer.
They accelerated and got closer to the car of the lady driver they saw overtaking them and that she was alone.
They first attempted to block her, and when she failed to halt her automobile, Kapoor started shooting at Vishwanathan’s car. She was instantly killed when the bullet struck her in the temple.
Vishwanathan’s vehicle struck a divider and came to a stop.
“All of the accused left the scene, but they came back 20 minutes later to check on her. They fled when they noticed police officers, the officer claimed.