The mother of journalist Soumya Viswanathan has approached the Supreme Court challenging the bail granted to four men convicted for the murder of her daughter, PTI reported on Saturday.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal is likely to hear the plea on Monday.
Vishwanathan was shot dead in her car around 3.30 am on South Delhi’s Nelson Mandela Marg in September 2008 when she was driving home from work.
Five people were arrested for the murder and remained in custody since March 2009. The police claimed that the motive behind the murder was robbery.
After nearly 15 years, an additional sessions court in Delhi on October 18 convicted four men under Section 302 (murder) and Section 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code as well as provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.
The Act, first enacted in Maharashtra, was extended to the National Capital Region by the Union government in 2002.
The convicts were identified as Ravi Kapoor, who shot Viswanathan using a country-made pistol, Amit Shukla, Balkeet Malik and Ajay Kumar.
The judge also held the four guilty of loot.
On November 25, the additional sessions judge sentenced the four convicts to life imprisonment. All of them were also directed to pay a fine of Rs 1.25 lakh each.
However, on February 12, the Delhi High Court granted them bail till the pendency of their appeals against their conviction.
A division bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Girish Kathpalia allowed their application after noting that they had already been behind bars for around 14 years and nine months.
The Vishwanathan murder case saw a breakthrough when the police were investigating the killing of Jigisha Ghosh, an IT professional, in 2009. Kapoor, Malik and Shukla had been arrested in connection with Ghosh’s killing. During the questioning, the police found their links to Vishwanathan’s murder.
Kapoor, Malik and Shukla have been convicted for Ghosh’s murder as well.
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