Jigisha murder case: HC asks authorities to decide parole plea of convict Ravi Kapoor in 10 days

The Delhi High Court asked the state authorities on Monday to decide within 10 days the parole application by Ravi Kapoor, serving life sentence for the murder of IT executive Jigisha Ghosh.

Kapoor approached the high court seeking three months parole for attending his niece’s wedding in March and for maintaining social ties with his parents and other family members.

In his plea, Kapoor said he had submitted an application to the authorities on January 29 for parole but no decision has been taken yet.

Justice Vikas Mahajan disposed of Kapoor’s plea after the counsel for the state said, according to the relevant provision of the Delhi Prisons Rules, an application for parole shall be decided within four weeks which is not yet over. The counsel submitted that the parole application will be disposed of within 10 days.

“Respondent is directed to dispose of the application for parole within 10 days from today. The writ petition is disposed of,” the high court said.

Kapoor was among those convicted of killing journalist Soumya Vishwanathan and Ghosh. He was recently granted bail by the high court in Vishwanathan's case pending his appeal challenging his conviction and sentence.

The high court had in January denied him parole considering the gravity of the offences committed by him. It had taken into account the overall conduct of Kapoor in jail and said it had been unsatisfactory given that 41 major punishments had been awarded to him.

He was awarded death penalty by a trial court in 2016 in the 2009 Jigisha Ghosh murder case which was later commuted to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court. He was also convicted in the Soumya Vishwanathan murder case of 2008. The trial court convicted and sentenced him to a life term in 2023.

Ghosh, 28, who was working with an IT firm, was kidnapped and killed in the early morning of March 18, 2009, after her office vehicle dropped her near her home in South Delhi's Vasant Vihar around 4 a.m. Her body was recovered two days later from Surajkund in Haryana. Police arrested three men and they were all held guilty by the court.

Recovery of the weapon allegedly used in Jigisha's killing had led to cracking of the Soumya Vishwanathan murder case. Vishwanathan, a journalist with a news channel, was shot dead on September 30, 2008, while she was returning home from office in the early hours. Police had claimed robbery as the motive behind both the killings.