A journalist working with Headlines Today news channel was shot dead in her car near her southwest Delhi home while returning from work in the early hours Tuesday.
Soumya Viswanathan, 27, was found dead in her white Maruti Zen car on Nelson Mandela Marg in South Delhi's Vasant Kunj area around 3.30 a.m, police said. Her car was found rammed against the road divider and she was seated in the driver's seat with blood oozing from her head. Viswanathan was a resident of C block in Vasant Kunj.
Vishwanathan, a producer with Headlines Today new channel of the India Today Group, was rushed to the Trauma Centre of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) by the police. She was declared brought dead by the hospital. Doctors found a bullet in her head during the post mortem examination. Police are not clear about the sequence of events leading to her death.
“We don't know when a bullet was fired at her. It could have been before or after her car rammed against the divider,†a senior police official told news agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS). “We cannot say if someone was accompanying her at the time of incident. We also don't deny that it could be a possible incident of road rage. It could also have been the result of personal enmity. The matter is now being probed from all angles,†he told IANS.
Viswanathan had volunteered to stay back in the office located at Jhandewalan after hearing about the low-intensity explosions in Maharashtra and Gujarat, according to Press Trust of India (PTI).
