The Kolkata Police civic volunteer convicted of raping and killing a junior doctor on duty at the RG Kar hospital in August last year was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment till death by a Calcutta court on Monday.
Sanjay Roy will not be hanged because the additional district and sessions judge, Sealdah, Anirban Das, did not consider his crime the rarest of rare.
“From the investigation and the evidence that has been presented before me, I feel this is not rarest of rare,” Das said.
The dismayed parents of the deceased doctor said the crime was rarest of rare to them. “God had gifted us a diamond and that diamond has been snatched away from us. To us, it is rarest of rare,” her mother said.
Reacting to the sentence, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said: “The case was snatched from us. We had said that if we can’t solve it, go to the CBI. If we handled the case, we would have ensured capital punishment for the guilty.”
In a post on X, Mamata wrote: “We will plead for capital punishment of the convict at the High Court now.”
Roy has been found guilty on three counts of murder, rape and causing death or a persistent vegetative state to a woman. The life sentence was awarded to him on all three counts. Two penalties of ₹50,000 have also been imposed for the rape and murder.
In his written order, Judge Das said: “Referring to the landmark Bachan Singh case, which established guidelines for imposing the death penalty, it is evident that this case does not meet the stringent criteria for being classified as ‘rarest of the rare’. The Supreme Court has consistently emphasised that the death penalty should be used only in exceptional circumstances where the collective conscience of the community is so shocked that it expects the holders of judicial power to inflict the death penalty.
“Given these considerations, it would be inappropriate to accede to the prosecution’s request for the death penalty…. The court must resist the temptation to bow to public pressure or emotional appeals and instead focus on delivering a verdict that upholds the integrity of the legal system and serves the broader interests of justice.”
Das condemned the role of some officers of Tala police station who delayed in making a general diary entry.
The order also criticised the role of some RG Kar officials who had told the victim’s parents that she had died by suicide.
The court also mentioned the deposition of CBI investigating officer Seema Pahuja where she confirmed that the RG Kar seminar hall was the scene of the crime. In the deposition, Pahuja had also said the CBI probe did not “blindly” follow the Kolkata Police’s findings and the accused was not falsely implicated to “shield the real culprit”.
“She strongly denied the prosecution suggestion that the seminar room of RG Kar hospital (chest department) was not the actual scene of crime or that she did not make any endeavour to locate the actual scene of crime and that she had blindly followed the investigation conducted by the Kolkata Police or that this accused was falsely implicated to shield the real culprit behind the incident,” the order said.
The word “prosecution” left some lawyers confused. Legally, investigating officer Pahuja is part of the prosecution. There was no clarity on whether it was a typographical error.
The court sentence came around two hours after the judge interacted with Roy in open court where he was given a last chance to speak on the quantum of punishment he was about to get.
The CBI’s lawyers termed the crime rarest of rare and one that had “shaken the conscience of the entire nation”.
Roy’s defence sought “anything but the death penalty”, citing the right to reformation for all individuals.
CBI counsels Anurag Modi and Parthasarathi Dutta said the crime was rarest of rare because a person who was at the hospital to serve people, “not for money”, was brutalised while she was performing her duty.
Roy’s defence lawyer, Senjuthi Chakraborty, said capital punishment can be awarded to a person only when the prosecution proves on record that he does not stand a chance of reformation.
Reacting to the life sentence, Indira Jaising, human rights lawyer and senior advocate in the Supreme Court, said: “I am relieved that there is no death penalty. Blood lust must be avoided. However, the issues raised by the doctors, namely, the threat culture, the irregular appointments of untrained security personnel and the lack of proper public health infrastructure, remain outstanding. I cannot see peace returning to anyone.”
The ills plaguing Bengal’s healthcare system were one of the triggers for the months-long street protests by doctors and members of the civil society.
The victim’s parents looked shocked in the court after the punishment was announced. Earlier, they had refused to accept compensation (₹17 lakh).
Following the guidelines laid down by the National Legal Services Authority, the judge announced a compensation of ₹10,00,000 for loss of life and ₹7,00,000 for rape.
“Here in this case, the daughter of the complainant is the sufferer and she lost her life and she left behind her parents and as such they come within the purview of the definition of ‘victim’ as per the provisions of the BNSS. In the instant case, since the time of death of the daughter of the complainant, they are passing their days with trauma and they are visiting the court to get justice every day,” the order said.
“Their pain and sufferings cannot be compensated with any liquid cash but at the same time I think that as the death of the victim was caused while she was on duty, the state has the liability to pay compensation which will be in addition to the compensation ordered u/s 395 BNSS,” it added.
At 12.30pm, Roy was brought to the courtroom where the judge iterated the charges and the maximum punishment they carried. Asked his opinion, Roy pleaded innocence and said he was “framed”. However, unlike Saturday, when he said an IPS officer “knows all”, he did not name anyone on Monday.
“I have already narrated my plight and the torture I underwent. Anyone would come and make me sign anything. I was not allowed to speak till today,” Roy complained.
The judge reminded him that he got an entire day to present his case during the trial. “What you told the court has been recorded,” he said.
The judgment is based on the case and evidence presented before the court, the judge added.
“And considering all the evidence, I feel that all the charges that have been pressed against you by the prosecution are accurate,” the judge said in Bengali for Roy’s understanding.