Jigisha Ghosh murder case: Delhi Police seeks maximum punishment for all three convicts

New Delhi, Aug 20 (ANI): The Delhi Police on Saturday sought maximum punishment for all the three convicts in the 2009 murder case of IT executive Jigisha Ghosh. Delhi's Saket court will pronounce the quantum of sentence for the three convicts on August 22. The three accused in the case---Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Ravi Kapoor---are also accused in the killing of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, who was shot dead on September 30, 2008, while returning home in her car from her office in the wee hours. Defence lawyers, however, sought a lenient punishment for the convicts citing their family situation. During the argument, defence lawyer for Ravi Kapoor said that he was only 27 years old, is suffering with life threatening disease, having two small children. Meanwhile, Amit Kumar, defence lawyer for Baljeet Malik said during the argument on quantum of sentence, they requested the court to give minimum punishment to the accused, considering their ages and previous conduct. "Considering their (accused) tender ages, there are chances that they should be allowed to come in the mainstream. On basis of that, we have requested for minimum punishment prescribed under Section 302 of the IPC," Kumar told ANI. On the other hand, Savita Ghosh, mother of Jigisha, said the accused have committed a cold-blooded murder and, therefore, should be given death sentence. Jigisha, 28, who was working with Hewitt Associate Pvt. Ltd as operations manager, was abducted and killed on March 18, 2009, after she was dropped near her home in Vasant Vihar area of South Delhi by her official cab around 4 a.m. The trial had begun on April 15, 2010 with examination of her father as the first prosecution witness. The court had framed charges against the accused under IPC and Arms Act, dealing with murder, criminal conspiracy, abduction, robbery, forgery and using firearms. The recovery of the weapon allegedly used in the murder of the IT executive had led to the cracking of the murder case of Soumya. (ANI)