Delhi High Court Grants Bail to Four Convicts in Soumya Vishwanathan Murder Case

In a recent development, the Delhi High Court has granted bail to four convicts implicated in the murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan. The bench, led by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait along with Justice Manoj Jain, approved their bail application, suspending their sentences until the resolution of their appeal against the conviction. The decision came after noting that the convicts had already served nearly 15 years behind bars. The convicts, Baljeet Malik, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, and Ajay Kumar, had challenged both their conviction and the sentence, asserting issues with the legal sustainability of the case and evidence presented against them.

During the trial, which spanned over 15 years, the city court had found the four men guilty of murder under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention), alongside charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA). The court had sentenced them to two life imprisonments to run consecutively, rejecting the plea for the death penalty by citing that the crime did not fall into the “rarest of rare” category. Despite the severe sentences, the convicts maintained their innocence, suggesting a lack of concrete evidence and misattribution of crimes under significant media and public pressure.

Soumya Vishwanathan, a journalist with Headlines Today (now India Today), was fatally shot in her car while returning home from work in September 2008, in what was initially considered a robbery turned murder. The granting of bail has reignited discussions on the complexities and challenges of legal proceedings in high-profile cases, emphasizing the significance of due process and the right to a fair trial.

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