Jigisha murder: Two convicts awarded death sentence, third gets life term

New Delhi, Aug 22 (ANI): A Delhi Court on Monday awarded death sentence to two convicts and life imprisonment to the third accused on charges of murdering IT professional Jigisha Ghosh seven years ago. The two convicts, Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla, have been awarded death sentence while Baljit Singh Malik has been given life imprisonment. The three convicts Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla and Baljit Singh Malik have also been asked to pay a fine of Rs. 20,000, Rs. one lakh and Rs. three lakh respectively. The trio is also accused of murdering television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan on September 30, 2008, while she was returning home from her office. The Delhi Police had on Saturday sought maximum punishment for all three convicts in the murder case. Defence lawyers, however, had sought lenient punishment for the convicts citing their family situation. During the argument, a defence lawyer representing Ravi Kapoor said that he was only 27 and suffering from a life threatening disease. He also has two small children to support, the lawyer added. Meanwhile, Amit Kumar, defence lawyer for Baljit Singh Malik, during the argument on allocating quantum of sentence said that the court should consider giving minimum punishment to the accused, considering their age and previous conduct. "Considering their (accused) tender ages, there are chances that they should be allowed to come in the mainstream. On the 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, Jigisha's mother, said the accused have committed cold-blooded murder, and therefore, should be given the death sentence. Jigisha, 28, working with Hewitt Associate Pvt. Ltd. as an 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 the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Arms Act, dealing with murder, criminal conspiracy, abduction, robbery, forgery and using firearms. The recovery of the weapon allegedly used in the murder of Jigisha also led to the cracking of the Soumya murder case. (ANI)