Journalist Soumya Viswanathan murder case: 4 arrested men posed as journalists
Journalist Soumya Viswanathan murder case: 4 arrested men posed as journalists
If the Delhi police are to be believed, the four men arrested on Monday for murdering journalist Soumya Viswanathan on September 30 last year were so unnerved by the media focus on the high-profile case that they took an unprecedented risk, which could have blown their cover, to track the investigation.
A day after murdering Viswanathan, the fouru00a0Ravi Kapoor, Amit Kumar Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Ajay Kumaru00a0visited the AIIMS Trauma Centre where the television producer's body had been kept to investigate if the police or the media had found any clues that could lead to them. Armed with fake press identity cards, they posed as journalists as they waited at the Centre to find more about the progress of the case.
"There was a lot of media presence outside the Trauma Centre that day. Ravi did not know that Soumya's case had snowballed into a major issue. He revealed during his interrogation that he had posed as a journalist and had visited the Trauma Centre," said a Delhi police official, wishing anonymity.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) HGS Dhaliwal, who is investigating the case, confirmed that the gang had visited the mortuary at the Trauma Centre.
The police said that the four men were drunk when they murdered the 25-year-old Viswanathan and only realised the next morning that they had stirred a hornet's nest. The media focus frightened the seasoned criminals and they disbanded. The police said that Shukla, who confessed to have shot Vishwanathan, said that he had gone into hiding a day after the murder. "Shukla fled to Mumbai where he did menial jobs as he feared that the police would arrest him. He returned to Delhi eight days ago and met his gang. It was then that they planned another robbery," said a senior police official.
According to police sources, the other accused, Ravi Kapoor, changed his residence soon after the murder. Ravi, who stayed at Sarita Vihar shifted to Madangir in south Delhi under a false identity.
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