Jigisha murder case: Court to decide punishment on Monday

New Delhi: A court here on Saturday reserved its order on the quantum of sentence for three persons held guilty of kidnapping and killing IT executive Jigisha Ghosh in March 2009.

Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav set August 22 for determining the punishment to be given to convicts Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla and Baljit Singh Malik.

Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan requested the court to award maximum punishment, i.e. death penalty, to the convicts as they have shown no remorse for killing the executive.

The convicts are also facing trial for killing India Today Group journalist Soumya Vishwanathan and a taxi driver, the prosecution apprised the court.

However, the defence counsel pleaded for leniency, contending that the convicts are young.

The court on July 14 convicted the three men under Section 302 (murder), Section 201 (destruction of evidence), Section 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), Section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), Section 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), Section 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), Section 482 (punishment for using a false property mark) with Section 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

Jigisha, 28, who was working with Hewitt Associate Pvt Ltd as an operations manager, was kidnapped and killed on March 18, 2009 after her office cab dropped her near her home in Vasant Vihar area in south Delhi around 4 a.m.

Her body was found on March 20, 2009 near Surajkund in Haryana.

The police later arrested Kapoor, Shukla and Malik in the case.