Soumya murder case transferred to sessions court for trial

Paving the way for start of trial in the sensational murder of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, a Delhi court today sent the matter to a sessions court after the five accused were provided with copies of the chargesheet.

"The chargesheet under various provisions of the IPC and the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) has been filed. The offences are exclusively triable by a court of sessions. Hence, the matter be transferred," additional chief metropolitan magistrate Kiran Bansal said.

The court directed accused Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar, Baljit Malik and Ajay Sethi to appear before the sessions court on October 21.

It allowed the plea of advocate Amit Kumar, appearing for Baljit, that he be granted a custody parole for eight hours on October 16 to see his ailing mother.

Delhi police recently filed a supplementary chargesheet under stringent MCOCA against the accused.

A magistrate cannot hear cases relating to heinous offences such as murder and the decision to transfer the matter was stalled on the allegation by the accused that they were not provided with the complete set of the chargesheet.

Police claimed robbery was the motive which ultimately led to the gruesome killing of the scribe of the Headlines Today news channel.

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.