Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Delhi police claim to have cracked the September 2008 murder of journalist Soumya Viswanathan and have arrested four members of a gang in connection with the case.
Police claim the breakthrough came about while investigating the recent murder case of call-centre employee Jigisha Ghose in the national capital.
Police say they have arrested three people in connection with Jigisha case.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern Range) Ajai Kashyap confirmed the news and said the arrested men have confessed to murdering both Jigisha and Soumya.
"Three men - Ravi Kapoor Rajeev, Baljeet and Amit Kumar have been arrested. We are on a lookout for the fourth accomplice Ajay. We were investigating them in connection with Jigisha case but the similiarities between the two cases was striking. So we investigated them further and some time later, they confessed to murdering Soumya as well," he said.
Kashyap also gave out the details of the arrested men. "Ravi is 24 years old and hails from Madangir (south Delhi). He has seven cases of burglary and auto-lifting against him. Baljeet has been arrested from Masoodpur and Amit Kumar too is from south Delhi. Ajay, who is yet to be arrested, is from Munirka," Kashyap said.
Kashyap confirmed the weapon used to murder Soumya - a .314 bore country-made pistol - has also been recovered from one of the arrested men.
Police claim the same gang was involved in both the murders. While Kashyap said Jigisha murder was planned and the motive was robbery, Soumya's may have been a case of an attempt to molest gone wrong.
"These four men were roaming the streets of Delhi near Vasant Kunj on September 30 when they saw Soumya drive past at a slow speed. They followed her in their vehicle and may have tried to eve-tease or molest her. An argument supposedly followed and Ravi shot at Soumya. The shot proved to be fatal and Soumya died on the spot," Kashyap said.
The arrested men will be produced in court on Tuesday afternoon, he said.
Soumya's father M K Viswanathan was visibly relieved. “I am happy with the investigation. My (elder) daughter has been in touch with Dhaliwal. i am very satisfied,” he said.
JIGISHA GHOSE MURDER
The police were investigating the murder of Jigisha Ghose, a BPO executive who was returning home in the early hours of March 18 and was murdered in Delhi. Her body was recovered from Faridabad, a satellite town 30 km south of Delhi.
Jigisha was last seen by her family on March 17 when she left for work.
According to the police, Jigisha’s office cab dropped her outside her apartment block in the early hours of March 18 morning.
However, Jigisha did not reach home after that.
The family filed a complaint with the Vasant Vihar police station on March 19 and on March 20 the Faridabad police found the girl’s body about 30 kilometer from her house.
Police claimed the attackers used Ghose's ATM card to withdraw money and used her credit card to buy expensive sunglasses, wrist watches and shoes from Sarojini Nagar market in south Delhi.
Police said they checked the CCTV footages of the market to identify the attackers.
REVISITING SOUMYA CASE
Twenty-six-year-old Soumya Viswanathan, a TV journalist was shot dead in the Capital on September 30 last year.
The incident occurred when she was driving from her Jhandewalan office to her Vasant Kunj residence at around 0330 hrs IST.
Soumya's car was found rammed into the divider on Nelson Mandela road. Her body was in the driver's seat and there was a bullet in her head.
There were signs of a struggle in the car and one tyre was found punctured and a bullet was recovered from it.
The police then rushed Soumya to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences but doctors declared her brought dead.
Soumya last spoke to her father at 3:15 am, saying she'll reach home shortly.
She was an employee of TV Today Network’s English news channel Headlines Today. Prior to joining Headlines Today, Soumya also worked with CNN-IBN.
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