Father’s diligence sent Jigisha killers to gallows
NEW DELHI: A father’s legwork, intelligence, and tenacious pursuit for justice helped nab the murderers of IT professional Jigisha Ghosh and television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, who were killed six months apart.
The 28-year-old Jigisha was abducted after an office car dropped her around 4am near her Vasant Vihar home on March 18, 2009. Her body was found near Surajkund in Haryana, almost half-a day later. The killers took away her gold jewellery, two mobile phones, and debit and credit cards.
Police told father JN Ghosh the murderers left behind little clues and, hence, it could take time to arrest them.
Ghosh was not convinced and deduced instinctively the stolen debit and credit cards could lead him to his daughter’s killers. He went to the bank that issued Jigisha’s cards and met the manager much before police did.
“My first instinct was to visit the bank … the day after she went missing. Though police were cooperative, I wanted to do my bit. We were grieving our daughter’s death, but I could not sit idle,” he said.
Ghosh collected statements and receipts of purchases made by the suspects using her debit card, and identified three shops in Sarojini Nagar where the transactions were made.
“I went to the stores and explained my case. I requested them to show me their CCTV footage. I saw the three men shopping in the video,” he said.
The surveillance videos led to the identification and arrest of Ravi Kapoor, Baljit Malik and Amit Shukla. A Delhi court pronounced on Monday the death sentence for Kapoor and Shukla, but Malik escaped the gallows for his good conduct in jail.
Jigisha’s killers disclosed to police during cross-examination they had shot dead Soumya on September 30, 2008. The 26-year-old was returning home after a night shift in office. She was found in her car around 3.30am with a bullet in her head.
An investigator said Jigisha’s killers were on shopping spree after the murder. The trio went to PVR Anupam in Saket and withdrew `5,000 using her card. To ascertain if the card could be swiped at a store, the killers bought a CD from a music shop.
They then bought a pair of Reebok shoes for Amit from a showroom in Saket and two pairs of sunglasses and a wristwatch worth `10,000 from Sarojini Nagar. Their next buy was an LCD TV for `20,000.
“CCTV footage from these stores were collected and tallied. They were wearing caps and kept their faces covered. But in one of the footage, we spotted a tattoo on Baljit’s hand,” the investigator said.
The tattoo trail led police to Malik, the first of the trio in the net. “It was easy thereafter to catch his associates,” a senior police officer said.