Soumya Viswanathan

How does it feel to be cheated by fate? That's what happened to the HT journalist who was shot by some mean guy at the wee hours as she was driving in her Zen. Things can get out of our hands without a hint. My friend Vishnu passed on this thing which Soumya's friend had written after her death:

During the postmortem, the doctor noticed a small entry wound on the right side of her forehead and found a bullet lodged in her brain under the left temple. ‘‘The impact of the bullet was such that a portion of the victim’s scalp was torn off and fell in front of the backseat. The bullet was removed from her head and it appears to be from a .315 bore country made pistol,’’ said the officer.

The car’s window was rolled up when the bullet hit her and the AC was on. She was shot from the driver’s side while apparently driving at high speed, said the officer
The car was apparently moving when she was shot and the only witness to the incident is a cyclist who saw the car hitting the central verge from a considerable distance and informed a cab driver who called the police.

The cops are probing all angles, including road rage. Since the car and her belongings were left untouched, carjacking or robbery has been ruled out. They are at a loss to provide a motive.

‘‘The car was standing in an inclined position, partly on the centre verge and partly on the road, with the body inside. The lights were on and we didn’t notice the bullet injury,’’ said an officer from the Vasant Kunj police station. ‘‘The front tyre on the driver’s side had burst and the wheel had twisted out of shape. We initially thought it was a regular fatal accident.’’

She was young, vivacious, liked by all and good at her job. Now, she is dead. Mystery shrouds the murder of a 25-year-old producer, Soumya.

Viswanathan, from an English news channel early on Tuesday morning at Vasant Kunj in south-west Delhi. Soumya was found dead in her white Zen car with a bullet in her head around 3.40am, about half-a-kilometre from the Vasant Kunj police station on Nelson Mandela Road. She was headed home to C-9 block in Vasant Kunj.

Police said they received a call around 3.40am about a young girl lying dead in her car with the car’s ignition and headlights still on. Initially, it was believed to be an accident — the bullet wound was noticed only during the postmortem.

*RIP SIRE*