The West Bengal government on Tuesday approached the Calcutta High Court to challenge a local court’s verdict sentencing Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment in the RG Kar hospital rape-murder case. The Mamata Banerjee-led government has demanded death penalty for the convict.
The State government moved the High Court a day after the Additional District and Sessions Court, Sealdah, sentenced Roy to life imprisonment until death after he was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering an on-duty junior doctor at the State-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Declaring the quantum of punishment for Roy, Additional District and Sessions Judge in Sealdah, Anirban Das on Monday said that the crime did not fall under the “rarest of the rare” category, which justified the decision to not impose the death penalty on the convict.
Commenting on the verdict, Banerjee on Monday said she was “not satisfied” as the convict in the rape and murder case was sentenced to life imprisonment.
“We have been demanding capital punishment from the first day. The case was taken away from us (Kolkata Police), and the CBI did the investigation. There should have been ultimate punishment for a person who committed such a crime. Had it been with the police, we would have ensured that he was served a death sentence,” said Banerjee, also Trinamool Congress supremo.
Hours after the State government moved the High Court to challenge the local court’s verdict, the deceased medic’s father slammed the Chief Minister on Tuesday. He accused Banerjee of ‘tampering’ with the evidence.
“Whatever the Chief Minister has done till date, she should not do anything more. This is our request. She can say a lot of things but she only tampered with evidence. The then (Kolkata Police) CP and others had tampered with the evidence,” the victim’s father said.
Not satisfied with the verdict
The parents of the deceased medic on Monday said they were not satisfied with the verdict of the court. They claimed that the investigation was done “half-heartedly” and several other culprits involved in the crime were shielded.
“We are shocked. How is this not the rarest of rare cases? An on-duty doctor was raped and murdered. We are dismayed. There was a larger conspiracy behind this crime,” the victim’s mother said on Monday. The father said the family would continue their fight until all the other culprits are brought to book and punished.
Notably, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the gruesome rape and murder case at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in August last year, amid massive mass protests across the country over the heinous crime.
The apex court questioned the West Bengal police over several issues related to the incident at the hospital. The court raised concerns about delays in filing the First Information Report (FIR), handing over the body of the deceased doctor and failure of the police to protect medical staff at the hospital during a mob attack.