On Monday, the court gave the death penalty to Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla, and life sentence to Baljeet.
Savita Ghosh heaved a sigh of relief when the judge pronounced death sentence to two of her daughter Jigisha's killers and life to one. Her husband JN Ghosh, who has been living listlessly for the past seven years, finally lifted his head and looked up when the judgment was announced. Grateful, the parents left courtroom number 306 in South Delhi's Saket district court with tears in their eyes.
"I have been waiting for this day for the past seven years. The quest for justice has kept us alive all these years," said Savita. "I know vengeance is wrong and my daughter will never return, but at least my heart got some solace knowing that her killers got the death penalty," she added.
On July 14, a Delhi sessions court convicted Amit Shukla, Ravi Kapoor and Baljeet Malik of kidnapping and killing IT executive Jigisha Ghosh. "No escape from the conclusion that the crime was committed by the accused persons," additional sessions judge (ASJ) Sandeep Yadav had announced in the open court.
All three have been held guilty under sections 364/302/201/394/468/469/471/34b of the Indian Penal Code. Kapoor was further convicted under the relevant sections of the Arms Act.
On Monday, the court gave the death penalty to Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla, and life sentence to Baljeet.
"Offence in the present case was committed in cold-blooded, inhuman and cruel manner," the court said. "Convicts were satisfied only by brutally mauling her to death. In other words, convicts behaved in uncivilised and barbaric manner against a helpless girl," he added. "The magnitude and brutality exhibited by convicts while committing the crime brings this case within the category of rarest of the rare case," the court said.
"This is a landmark judgment because for the first time death penalty was given in a case riddled and built around circumstantial evidence," said HGS Dhaliwal, former deputy commissioner of police (South).
This trial sets a precedent because for the first time, a sessions judge ordered a probation officer (PO) to prepare a pre-sentencing report (PSR), as mandated by the Delhi High Court, before he could award the convicts any punishment.
A suitable punishment was then awarded based on the observations made by the PO in this report. According to the PO, claims of Kapoor and Shukla were "unsatisfactory" for various reasons. Both had multiple criminal charges against them, including convictions, and were involved in various violations within jail. Also, the duo can't be reformed or rehabilitated and would "continue to remain a threat to the society".
The judge spared Malik of noose since the PO observed that he could be reformed. "If released, Malik planned to become a gym trainer to support his family," the PO noted.
All three convicts were imposed a fine of Rs 9 lakh under various sections of which Rs 6 lakh will go to Jigisha's parents as compensation.
Jigisha, an operations manager with Hewitt Associate Pvt Ltd, was kidnapped on March 18, 2009 after her office cab dropped her near her home in south Delhi's Vasant Vihar, around 4 a.m. Her dead body was found two days later in Surajkund, almost 18 kms away. Jigisha was robbed of her valuables, including ATM card, gold jewellery, and money.
A week later, her killers were caught after a constable recognised Baljeet from the Close Circuit Television Camera (CCTV) at an ATM in South Delhi. Upon sustained interrogation, it was revealed that all three accused had also murdered television executive Soumya Vishwanathan.
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