New Delhi, Oct 13, (Always First) A Delhi Court on Friday reserved judgement in TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan’s 2008 murder case for pronouncement on October 18.

Additional Sessions Judge Ravindra Kumar Pandey, who presided over the case, gave the time for additional arguments or clarifications since both the defence and prosecution completed their arguments last week.

The court also directed all the accused to be present in court when the judgment is pronounced.

Vishwanathan tragically lost her life on September 30, 2008, when she was shot dead on Nelson Mandela Marg while returning home from work in her car.

Five individuals – Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, Ajay Kumar, and Ajay Sethi – were arrested in connection with the murder and have been in custody since March 2009. The police had attributed the motive for her killing to robbery, and had invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against the accused.

Malik, along with two others – Kapoor and Shukla – had previously been convicted in the 2009 killing of IT executive Jigisha Ghosh. In Ghosh’s murder, the trial court sentenced Kapoor and Shukla to death and awarded a life term to Malik. Subsequently, in the following year, the high court commuted the death sentences of Kapoor and Shukla to life imprisonment while upholding Malik’s life term in the Ghosh’s murder case.