Six years after her death, Soumya's parents feel frustrated at 'the slow pace of justice'

It is a quiet day in the tranquil Vasant Kunj neighbourhood, but for the Vishwanathans living on the second floor of one of the DDA flats, there is a fair amount of restlessness in that tranquillity. It is the birthday of their younger daughter Soumya, and like the last few years, this day will be no different from another. Six years ago, in September 2008, while on her way back from office in the night, Soumya was chased by four men in another car. When they couldn't catch up with her, they fired shooting her in the head. 

Friends and well-wishes have been calling since morning. “This year, nobody has dropped by yet. People get busy,” says Madhvi, her mother. It’s been six years, and the slow pace of justice is extremely frustrating, she says. 

“In the last hearing in the last week of October, the public prosecutor had resigned and they were yet to appoint another one. In the hearing before that, he was absent. Several times they have forgotten to send summons to witnesses,” says Madhvi. Fighting back tears, she remembers how Soumya loved to celebrate her birthday: “One year, I was away for work and forgot to celebrate her birthday. She would always remind me of that. She’d start shopping months before.”

“She had so many friends, and some of them still drop by. We’ve left her room just as it was,” says Soumya’s father. 

Six months after her death, her assaulters strangulated another girl on her way back from work, Jigyasa Ghosh. The investigations in Jigyasa’s death led to the confession of one of the assaulters. It was also found that they had killed a cabbie named Nadeem. They are now booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

“I would always say that Soumya’s killers should get a lifer, they should not be killed, and I would anger so many people. I never believed in ‘an eye for an eye’. But, I think they should hang Soumya’s killers. They should set an exemplary precedent. There should be fear,” she says. 

Soumya’s parents remember how people tried to politicise their daughter’s death. “A BJP leader pleaded for votes and put the picture of Soumya’s car. Sheila Dikshit called her adventurous for travelling from work so late. But, she was at work,” says Madhvi. “She did not like taking the office cabs because drivers were drunk sometimes, and she’d reach home late as they had other people to drop. If we had any inkling that it was unsafe for her to travel on her own, we would have never let her drive.”

The couple do not blame the cops. “The police should be given some dignity instead,” she says. 

Her soft spoken father, proud of his “hard-working and diligent” daughter, feels that she should have taken her sister’s advice seriously and taken up a management course. “But we would never tell her what to do,” he says. “People have forgotten her. Justice in this case won't ever happen.”