A packed Sealdah courtroom presented scenes rare in the city’s recent criminal records. Metro chronicles what we saw and heard.
Fans, please
The verdict was due at 2.30pm. The court of the additional district and sessions judge was packed by noon.
The courtroom that had four rows of wooden benches was struggling to accommodate the surge of people.
Many who had their winter wear on struggled. The court followed the calendar and had the four fans switched off. Every once in a while someone from the waiting mass looked up at the ceiling and the still fans.
A lawyer said she felt faint and had to be helped to a seat. It took time as someone had to vacate a place in the jam-packed room. “Unless the judge permits, the fans can’t be switched on,” a lawyer said.
At 2.15pm, five minutes before additional district and sessions judge, Sealdah, Anirban Das entered the courtroom, the fans came to life.
Enter, Sanjay Roy
At 2.22pm, those present in the courtroom turned towards the door, alerted by what sounded like a shuffle of boots.
There was a buzz in the crowd. “Sanjay ese gechhe (Sanjay is here),” someone said in a hushed voice. And Roy entered.
Police shouted “free the door”. Roy entered through the door to the right of the courtroom.
Accused protected
Two rows of police created a channel to provide a safe passage. Securing Roy, still an accused in the gruesome rape and murder, were a group of women from Kolkata Police.
They formed a human chain up to the dock facing the judge.
The police faced the packed courtroom, their backs to Roy.
There was a cage to the left of the courtroom where the accused are usually produced. But the judge wanted to speak to Roy and so he was taken to the witness box.
Roy stunned
Roy mounted the witness box at 2.23pm. The judge narrated to him the charges against him and said he was guilty of all of them.
You could hear a pin drop in the room as the judge spoke.
“You throttled the woman in a way that it killed the victim and you can get the highest, capital punishment, or life imprisonment,” the judge said.
Roy, who wore an ashen sweatshirt with an orange collar, watched the judge. Did he look stunned? Many thought so.
Das, who was talking in English, switched to Bengali while addressing Roy and explaining the details of the punishment. He explained to Roy that “Jabajjiban shaja paoa maane apnake shara jiban apnar mrityu parjanto jail-e thakte hobe (life imprisonment means you have to remain in jail till you die)”.
Roy his own lawyer
The judge finished his two- minute briefing at 2.26pm. Then he asked Roy whether he had anything to say.
Roy came into his own dramatically. He folded his hands and started pleading “Hujur, I have been framed.... I have been framed because I am poor,” he said.
As he defended himself, his lawyer Senjuthi Chakraborty told him to “calm down, calm down, we will present our case on Monday”. But Roy was undeterred.
“Earlier, I was told I would be allowed to speak today. Now, I am being told that it will happen later. I am not able to figure out what is happening,” he said.
Exit, Roy
The police forced Roy to step down from the witness box around 2.29pm even as he
tried to keep claiming innocence. As the police were trying to drag a reluctant Roy towards the door through the same human chain, Roy could be heard yelling twice “amake dhakka deben na (You don’t need to push me)”. The tone more aggressive than when he spoke to the judge.
He closed his eyes twice, as if to suggest he was feeling uneasy. He was out of the court by 2.30pm.
Parents
The slain junior doctor’s parents entered the courtroom at 1.45pm. The lawyers asked some of those seated in the front row to shift so they could be seated to get a better view of the proceedings.
At 2.23pm, after Roy had made it to the witness box, the parents stood up and walked a few paces towards him for a closer look. Roy did not look at them. As the judge ended the court proceedings, the father told the judge he had honoured the trust he and his wife had reposed in him, almost breaking down in tears.