Accused in Soumya murder case seeks discharge

New Delhi, Nov 22 (PTI) One of the accused in the
sensational murder case of TV scribe Soumya Vishwanathan has
approached a Delhi court seeking discharge on the ground that
police have failed to link him with the offence.
In an application, filed before Additional Sessions Judge
S K Sarvaria, accused Baljeet Singh Malik said the
investigators, in the chargesheet, did not attribute any role
to him in the murder of Soumya, a journalist of 'Headlines
Today' news channel.
"There is nothing in the chargesheet which can show the
actual participation of the accused in the commission of
alleged murder of Soumya Vishwanathan," the plea, filed by
Malik's advocates Amit Kumar and R K Mishra, said.
The court, which is to frame charges against the accused
and four others including prime suspect Ravi Kapoor, has
posted the application for hearing Monday.
Kapoor had allegedly shot at Soumya on the night of
September 30 last year while she was returning home by her car
from office at around 3:30 am IST.
The other four accused including Malik was in the car,
used in trailing the victim, police said, adding that they
wanted to rob her off valuables.
Police said recovery of the weapon allegedly used in the
murder of IT executive Jigisha Ghosh, who was killed on March
18 this year, had led to the cracking of the killing of
Soumya also.
The accused, arrested on March 28 in connection with
Ghosh's murder, was later framed in the Soumya case on the
basis of his disclosure statement alone, the application said.
"It is settled law that the disclosure statement has no
evidentiary value in the eyes of law...," it said.
The plea said the accused was "falsely implicated" in the
case due to the pressure of the media as the victim was
working for a leading media house.
"Police has been clueless even after the lapse of six
months since the date of alleged offence," it said adding that
"the accused has allegedly been shown to be sitting on the
back seat of the car and nothing more has been assigned to
him."
Besides Malik, other accused in the cases are Ravi
Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Ajay Sethi. They have
been booked under various provisions of Indian Penal Code and
Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) dealing
with robbery, murder, criminal conspiracy and running an
organised crime syndicate.
Police had claimed robbery was the motive which led to
the killing of Ghosh and the scribe. PTI SJK
ANU