After a seven-year-long trial, a Delhi court on Thursday held three men guilty of kidnapping and killing IT executive Jigisha Ghosh in March 18, 2009.
The three criminals — Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla and Baljeet Singh — who killed Jigisha were also involved in the murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan.
Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav said the prosecution had proved its case against the three. “It is abundantly clear from direct and circumstantial evidence that the three convicts abducted Jigisha Ghosh for committing her murder,” the court said.
Jigisha, 28, working as an operations manager in Hewitt Associate Pvt ltd, was abducted and killed after she was dropped by her office taxi near her house in South Delhi’s Vasant Vihar area around 4 am. The court has fixed August 20 for hearing arguments on the quantum of sentence.
Jigisha’s parents who had come to court despite being unwell wept after the judge held the three accused guilty of killing their only child.
It may be recalled that Jigisha’s body was recovered three days later from a place near Surajkund in Haryana. The Delhi Police had also registered a case of murder against the trio after one Nadeem was killed in Mehrauli.
Yadav held the three men guilty of the offences of murder, abduction, robbery, forgery and common intention under the IPC. While pronouncing the judgment, the judge said, “It was proved that the three convicts abducted Jigisha, robbed her of her gold chain, two mobile phones, two rings, debit and credit cards and killed her.”
The accused had used Jigisha’s ATM card to buy expensive sunglasses, watches and shoes from Sarojini Nagar market.
The court also asked Delhi’s Home Secretary to immediately appoint probation officers for filing reports on the background of the convicts and their conduct in jail.
The court framed charges against the guilty under IPC and Arms Act, dealing with murder, abduction, robbery, forgery and using firearms.
The recovery of the weapon used in Jigisha’s murder also helped the cops crack Soumya’s murder.
The television journalist was shot dead on September 30, 2008 while returning home from office in her car late at night. Police had claimed robbery as the motive behind both the murders.
