Saumya Vishwanathan (1982-2008) was an Indian journalist who was murdered in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj on 30 September 2008.
Wiki/Biography
Saumya Vishwanathan was born on Wednesday, 8 December 1982 (age 25 years; at the time of death) in New Dehli. Her zodiac sign was Sagittarius. She pursued her graduation in journalism from Kamala Nehru College, affiliated with the University of Delhi, and later studied broadcast journalism at the Indian Institute Of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal, Odisha.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 3″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Saumya Vishwanathan with her father
Family
Parents & Siblings
Her father, MK Vishwanathan, worked with Voltas. Her mother, Madhavi Vishwanathan, worked as a lecturer at Delhi University before switching to a private firm later. Her elder sister, Shubha Viswanath, lives in Vietnam.
Saumya Vishwanathan with her parents
Soumya Vishwanathan’s parents outside Saket court in 2016
Husband & Children
She was unmarried.
Career
In February 2008, she joined India Today’s Headlines Today and worked there as a news producer till September 2008 when she was murdered. On the day of her murder, she stayed back at the office as she was working on a news story on two bomb blasts, one in Malegaon in Maharashtra and the other in Gujarat. Previously, she had worked at CNN-IBN.
Soumya Vishwanathan Murder Case
On 30 September 2008, Soumya was killed near her home in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj. She was found dead in her car (a Maruti Zen) with a gunshot wound on her head. She was working as a news producer with Headlines Today news channel. That night, she had stayed back late to help out with a breaking news event. She left her office in Jhandewalan at 3:03 a.m. and started driving towards her home in Vasant Kunj. On her way back, Soumya overtook a WagonR occupied by four men, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljit Malik, and Akshay Kumar. The four men noticed that the woman driver who overtook them was alone and started following her. First, they tried to stop Soumya’s car but failed. Consequently, Kapoor fired at her with a countrymade weapon (Desi Katta). The bullet hit her on the head and killed her instantly. Meanwhile, the car crashed against a divider on Nelson Mandela Marg and came to a halt. Around 3.45 a.m., a staff of a nearby restaurant cycling home noticed Soumya’s car and called the cops. Soumya was rushed to AIIMS, where she was declared dead. At first, the killers fled the scene, but they returned 20 minutes later to check the victim’s condition. When they saw the police at the crime scene, they fled again. The investigation in the case was conducted under HGS Dhaliwal, a police officer from Delhi South District. Police made a breakthrough in Soumya’s murder case while investigating the murder of another woman named Jigisha Ghosh in 2009. Ghosh was looted and murdered in March 2009 and Ravi Kapoor was arrested in its connection. During interrogation, he revealed he was involved in the murder of one more woman, Soumya. Although the killers were arrested immediately, it took fifteen years to bring them to justice. In 2017, the Trial court handed death sentences to Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla, and a life sentence to Baljeet Malik in the Jigisha Ghosh murder case. However, in 2018, Delhi HC commuted the death sentences of Kapoor and Shukla. On 13 October 2023, Delhi court convicted five men in connection with Soumya’s murder. Four accused, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljit Malik, and Akshay Kumar, were held guilty of murder and loot. They faced charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) as well as charges of murder (Section 302), robbery (Section 390) and common intent (Section 34) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The fifth, Ajay Sethi, was held guilty of helping the others.
Prime Accused In Soumya’s Murder Case
Until his arrest in March 2009, Ravi Kapoor was reportedly known to be a car thief and a police informer. It was discovered that Kapoor often disguised himself as a cop, judge, or doctor. Kapoor and his gang would evade suspicion by pretending to be police informants and driving official police vehicles. Kapoor had murdered TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, IT executive Jigisha Ghosh, and a cab driver, all of them on one south Delhi stretch. Sometimes, Kapoor doubled up as a police informant and even drove some official cop vehicles. So, when he and his companions carried out the three murders, the police didn’t even suspect him. Kapoor and his group often hung out with some South Delhi policemen, giving them wrong information and cleverly extracting probe updates from them. Aware of how the investigations were progressing, they stayed ahead of the cops at every step. The cops cracked the cases within a week of Jigisha’s murder. The probe focused on the transactions carried out using Jigisha’s stolen ATM card. The killers used it to buy shoes, a TV, and a watch in Saket and Sarojini Nagar. Police came across a blurred CCTV footage that showed three suspects buying a watch. The breakthrough came when a head constable named Dara Singh identified the man with the tattoo as Kapoor.
Prime Accused In Soumya Vishwanathan’s Murder Case