The lawyer for the family of the trainee doctor raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 said on Monday that the convict, Sanjay Roy, not being given the death penalty was a reflection of the lapses in the investigation.

The rape and murder of the on-duty doctor had shaken Kolkata, Bengal and India. The city had been rocked by massive protests. The case, which was initially investigated by Kolkata Police who had arrested Roy a day after the crime, was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by Calcutta high court.

In his first reaction after the life sentence was pronounced, advocate Amartya Dey, the counsel for the victim’s family, said he had not yet got a copy of the judgment.

"Let me have the copy of the judgment. There have been some laches in the part of investigation, which we pointed out during the argument, and this is actually the reflection of the argument in the judgment," he told PTI videos.

Sanjay Roy, a former Kolkata Police civic volunteer, was convicted by Judge Anirban Das on Saturday.

The judge had said circumstantial evidence had proved the charges against Roy.

"I do not consider it as a rarest-of-rare crime," Judge Das said on Monday as he sentenced Roy to life in jail on both the counts of rape and murder. "Life imprisonment, meaning imprisonment until death."

The judge said that he had come to the conclusion that it was not a rarest-of-rare crime after considering all the evidence and the circumstances linked to it. He said Roy could appeal the verdict to a higher court.

The sentence was announced in a packed courtroom as the judge allowed the public to witness proceedings on Monday.

The speedy trial in the court was not open to the public.

The parents of the junior doctor were among those in court on Monday. The parents had earlier said that they were not satisfied with the probe and suspected more people were involved in the crime.

Advocate Dey earlier on Monday told Reuters that they had sought the death penalty for Roy and also demanded that those involved in what they called the "larger conspiracy" be brought to book.

The protesting doctors had said that street protests would continue until justice was done.