A Delhi court on Monday awarded death penalty to two convicts, Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla, and life term to third convict, Baljeet Malik, more than seven years after they robbed and murdered 28-year-
A Delhi court on Monday awarded death penalty to two convicts, Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla, and life term to third convict, Baljeet Malik, more than seven years after they robbed and murdered 28-year-old IT executive Jigisha Ghosh in a moving car in the city.
“To be hanged by neck till death,” additional sessions judge Sandeep Yadav said while awarding death to Kapoor and Shukla. The judge also observed that gruesome crimes against women were on the rise and any leniency to the criminals would send a wrong message.
“The offence was committed in a brutal, cold blooded and cruel manner. The victim was helpless and remained in captivity for hours and the convicts brutally mauled her to death. It was an uncivilised act done in a barbaric manner. The magnitude and brutality of the crime makes it fall in the category of rarest of rare,” the judge said.
The court also imposed a total fine of '9 lakh on the three convicts, who were present for the sentencing, out of which '6 lakh is to be given to Jigisha’s family as compensation.
Jigisha, who was working as an operations manager in a management consultancy firm, was abducted and killed on March 18, 2009 after her office cab dropped her at about 4 am near her home in Vasant Vihar. Her body was recovered three days later near Surajkund in Haryana.
While awarding the death penalty to two convicts, the court quoted pre-sentencing report that there was “no scope for Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla to reform.” As per the report, Baljeet‘s conduct was normal, there was no complaint against him and he was not a threat to society.
On the compensation part, the judge noted that the amount was not adequate and asked the Legal Aid Authority to decide appropriate compensation for Jigisha’s family. “The pain, agony and trauma of the victim’s parents cannot be compensated,” the judge observed. On July 14, the court had convicted the three men, saying it was “abundantly clear” that they had committed the crime. The court said it was proved the three convicts had abducted Jigisha, robbed her of a gold chain, two mobile phones, two rings, debit and credit cards and murdered her.
On August 20, the court had reserved the sentencing of the three convicts after the arguments concluded and the probationary officer submitted a pre-sentencing report. While seeking death sentence for the convicts, special public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan had argued that they had abducted Jigisha, robbed her, killed her and used her debit card for shopping, and CCTV footage of their shopping showed they had no remorse for their act. The three convicts had used Jigisha’s ATM card to buy expensive goggles, wristwatches and shoes from Sarojini Nagar in South Delhi.
Advocate Amit Kumar, appearing for convicts Baljeet Malik and Amit Shukla, had argued that his clients have already spent over seven years in jail and maintained good conduct. The counsel for convict Ravi Kapoor had sought leniency for his client, saying he suffered from a life-threatening disease and belonged to a poor family. The police had filed the chargesheet in the case in June 2009 and trial began on April 15, 2010. Recovery of the weapon allegedly used in Jigisha’s murder had led to the police to crack the murder case of Soumya Vishwanathan, a journalist with a news channel.
Soumya was shot dead on September 30, 2008 while she was returning home in her car from office. The police had claimed robbery as the motive for the murders of both Jigisha and Soumya.
Senior police officer H.G.S. Dhaliwal, whose team cracked the murder, termed the sentence as “justice delivered in letter and spirit.”
“The verdict in the case announced today by is justice delivered in letter and spirit,” said the then DCP(South) whose team had investigated and arrested the accused within a week.
Mr Dhaliwal, who is currently posted as deputy director-general of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security of India, is no longer associated with the Delhi police but he has been in constant touch with Jigisha’s parents and was present in the court when the verdict was delivered.
“Her parents thanked the police for cracking the case. They were under acute depression when the incident happened. Her mother says if not for police, she would have committed suicide,” he told PTI.
