The men — three of them detained on Monday — are main accused Ravi Kapoor, Amit Kumar Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Vijay Kumar. The police are on the hunt for the fifth accused, Ajay Kumar.

Said Commissioner of Police Y S Dadwal: “The murders of both Jigisha Ghosh and Soumya Vishwanathan have been solved with the arrest of these men. Ajay Kumar is still on the run.”

The police said 28-year-old Ghosh, an operations manager with Hewitt Associates in Noida, was smothered to death by Ravi Kapoor in the early hours of March 18 after she was dropped off by the office car at her CPWD housing colony near the PVR Priya complex.

Also in her twenties, Soumya Vishwanathan, who worked in Headlines Today, was shot dead in the same area and by the same group on the morning of September 30, 2008, police said. Both women were returning home after the night shift.

Asked what led the police to conclude that both had been killed by the same group, Dadwal said: “The accused have confessed to killing them both. Moreover, we have recovered the pistol that killed Soumya. Cartridges have been found too and all evidence will be sent to the forensic department.” He said that the bullet that hit Soumya’s head was fired from this pistol.

Officials claimed vital evidence was found in Ravi Kapoor’s Madangir home. Two pistols and at least 20 live rounds were seized. An officer said: “Ten rounds were found lying near the pistols and another ten to twelve were packed in an almirah.”

Dadwal confirmed the killers caught Jigisha Ghosh unawares that night — walking towards her home — because she was talking on her mobile phone. They had first asked her about an address and then kidnapped her at gunpoint. The accused forced her to give them her ATM card pin (6663), and drove off with her towards Faridabad from where her body was recovered on March 20.

They also took her gold and silver rings, a gold chain, cash, two mobile phones and her cards. The cards kept the trail hot since the accused went on a shopping spree the very next day. The police examined extensive CCTV footage from shops that recorded transactions on the cards. Footage from one CCTV, from an outlet in Sarojini Nagar which sold watches to the accused, was the giveaway.

Dadwal also shed light on the events that led to Soumya Vishwanathan’s murder. He said: “In the early hours of September 30, these same men were cruising along Nelson Mandela Marg in a drunken state. They spotted her driving at a moderate speed. They tried to wedge their Wagon R in front of her vehicle but shot her when she refused to stop.”

...And in court
Ravi Kapoor, Amit Kumar Shukla and Baljeet Malik were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Saurav Pratap Singh Laler on Tuesday. They were produced in connection with the murder of Jigisha Ghosh. The police are yet to charge them with Soumya Vishwanathan’s murder. The court remanded them in judicial custody till March 28 and later, asked the police to appear before another magistrate to get the nod for a test identification parade in Tihar Jail. Metropolitan Magistrate Veena Rani fixed March 27 for identification parade.