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Chargesheet filed in Soumya murder case

Last updated on: June 22, 2009 19:52 IST
The Delhi police on Monday filed a 620- page chargesheet against five youths arrested in connection with the murder of TV journalist Soumya Viswanathan.

All the five persons -- Ravi Kapoor, Ajay Sethi, Amit Shukla, Baljit Malik and Ajay Kumar -- have also been booked under different sections of Indian Penal Code.

The chargesheet filed in a local court has given a list of 60 prosecution witnesses. "The motive behind the murder was robbery. They are charged under murder, destruction of evidence, forgery and criminal conspiracy," Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) H G S Dhaliwal told mediapersons.

Dhaliwal claimed that they have "strong evidence" against the accused.

"We have recovered the vehicle used to carry out the crime and phone records that show they were near the murder spot," he said.

26-year-old Soumya was shot dead in Delhi on September 30 last year when she was driving from her Jhandewalan office to her Vasant Kunj residence.

The arrests were made on March 23 during investigations into another murder case of Jigisha Ghose, an IT executive.

The five accused have been charged under section 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), 468 (forgery), 471 (using forged documents as genuine) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.

The police have recovered a Maruti Wagan-R car, used in tailing the scribe on the night of September 30 last year at the instance of accused Ajay Sethi.

In a case based on circumstantial evidence, the police have given a list of 60 prosecution witnesses to prove its version.

Besides recovery of the car used in the commission of the offence, the police, in the chargesheet, have also given call details of the accused, indicating their presence near the site of offence on the date of incident.

The police have said the probe has amply indicated that the empty lone bullet, fired at the scribe, has matched with the recovered weapon allegedly used in the offence.

The mystery behind the killing of Soumya was cracked almost six months after the incident when the police were investigating into the murder case of Jigisha Ghose, an IT executive.

Ghosh (28) was killed in the wee hours of March 18 while returning from a call centre. The recovery of the weapon allegedly used in the murder of Ghosh led to the cracking of the killing of Soumya case also, police claimed in the chargesheet.

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