Curtains drawn on 7-year old Jigisha murder case

Curtains were drawn on a seven- year long battle for the aged parents of Jigisha Ghosh, whose killers were brought to book today with a city court sending two convicts to the gallows and one to life imprisonment for the "brutal and cold-blooded murder" in 2009.

Jigisha's mother, 58-year-old Sabita Ghosh, who has been attending every court hearing since 2009 with her husband, broke down while remembering her daughter and said "Jigisha was always against death sentences, and she might not agree with today's judgement too, but what else do these criminals, who have destroyed a complete family, deserve, if not death?"

"I have never believed in god but throughout the trial I prayed to god and cried for justice and we have finally got it," she said.

The mother, who had no qualms about Baljeet not being awarded death, said, "his conduct was good throughout the trial."

While Sabita thanked the police, prosecutor and media for their unending support, her husband and Jigisha's 72-year-old father J N Ghosh, also a former official of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, expressed satisfaction but remained in a corner with tears in his eyes.

He could not speak much even after the pronouncement of the verdict, merely saying "We are satisfied. But what is gone is gone. We cannot get our daughter back but are happy with the verdict."

Elaborating on the agony of the parents, Investigating Officer Atul Kumar said the criminals killed not only the girl but one complete family.

"I have seen how the parents are living. They have not slept for the last seven years," the IO said, adding that it was a blind and a challenging case.

"It was a blind case. A collection of one evidence led to another, and the culprits were caught. They were found to be involved in other incidents of robbery and murder too, including that of journalist Soumya Viswanathan," he said.

28-year-old Jigisha, working as an operations manager in a management consultancy firm, was abducted and killed on March 18, 2009, after she was dropped by her office cab in the wee hours near her home in Vasant Vihar area of South Delhi.

Her body was recovered three days later from a place near Surajkund in Haryana.