Days after journalist Soumya Vishwanathan’s killers were sentenced to life imprisonment, her father MK Vishwanathan, aged 82, breathed his last early morning on December 9, after developing complications since his bypass surgery, confirmed a close family friend.

On November 25, after Delhi’s Saket court delivered the judgment, Soumya’s mother Madhavi told HT that her husband, who was present for most of the hearings along with her, was in the ICU as he underwent a bypass surgery. “My daughter is with him in the ICU, and they are watching the judgment… But I am unable to register what is happening,” she had said.

Madhavi was unavailable for comment since her husband’s death.

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Dr Sapna B Roshni, who has been friends with the family for 15 years and often accompanied the elderly couple to court hearings said on Sunday, “He was undergoing a bypass surgery at Fortis hospital, after which he developed complications, leading to kidney failure. At 3.21am on December 9, he breathed his last. The cremation took place yesterday afternoon. Madhavi is with her family now and they are grieving.”

She added, “It looked like he pulled through till the judgment was delivered in their favour. The ordeal began when he was in his mid-60s and went on for 15 years. It was disheartening to see elderly people going to court and then hearing the judgment get delayed. He fought till the very end…”

Soumya Vishwanathan, who worked with a private news channel was shot dead in her car on Nelson Mandela Road while she was returning to her home from the office on September 30, 2008, between 3.25am and 3.55am. The proceedings spanned over 15 years and over 300 hearings.

On October 18, as the Saket court found the accused guilty, MK Vishwanathan told HT that had a feeling that the verdict would be in their favour. He said, however, “There’s no happiness… I will never get my daughter back.”