Date:01/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/01/stories/2008100156551200.htm

National

Motive behind journalist’s murder unclear

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: A 25-year-old woman journalist, Soumya Viswanathan, working with English TV news channel Headlines Today, was found shot dead in her car under mysterious circumstances at Vasant Kunj here in the early hours of Tuesday.

The motive behind the murder is not yet clear.

Around 3.55 a.m. the police received a call from a passer-by about an accident on Nelson Mandela Marg. A Police Control Room team reached the spot and found a damaged Maruti Zen car lying near the central verge. There were skid marks suggesting that the vehicle dragged for some distance before it rammed into the central verge and came to a halt. The headlights of the car were on and the right front tyre had burst.

The police found a young woman lying on the driving seat in an unconscious state. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was declared dead on arrival. Blood was oozing from the right side of the head.

The police and she Soumya’s parents were initially under the impression that it was a case of accident. “However, we decided to conduct a post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death. And when the skull was opened, a bullet was found lodged in the head,” said a police officer.