Former journalist Soumya Vishwanathan was murdered in the national capital on a September night in 2008 while returning from work. After a trial that lasted over a decade, her killers were sentencd for life imprisonment last month. Just two weeks after the sentencing of Soumya Vishwanathan’s killers to life imprisonment, her father, MK Vishwanthan, has passed away. MK Vishwanthan, who waited 15 years for justice for his daughter, breathed his last this morning. Yesterday marked Soumya’s 41st birth anniversary.
Four killers were sentenced to life-imprisonment
A few weeks ago, Delhi’s Saket court finally delivered justice by handing down life imprisonment to the four accused. The court rejected the death penalty, stating that the case did not fall under the 'rarest of rare' category. The four convicts, identified as Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The panel, led by Additional Sessions Judge Ravindra Kumar Pandey, also levied a fine of Rs 1.25 lakh on each of the convicted individuals. The fifth individual implicated in the case received a three-year term of simple imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 7.25 lakh.
Soumya's father was in ICU when verdict came
During the court's conclusive decision, Soumya's father was in the ICU, and her mother, Madhavi Vishwanathan, expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict, citing the court's refusal to impose the death penalty.
"I wanted this. What I am suffering, I want them to suffer for life. I am satisfied, but I will not say that I am happy. My husband is in ICU. He had a bypass surgery," Soumya’s mother had told news agency PTI.
Employed at a prominent news channel, Soumya Vishwanathan was a graduate of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, where she successfully obtained her post-graduate diploma in English Journalism.
