Mamata Banerjee on Monday expressed discontent with the punishment given to Sanjay Roy for raping and killing the junior doctor and asserted that if the investigation had been carried out by state agencies, they would have ensured capital punishment for the convict.
The chief minister made no bones about Roy being sentenced to life in prison for the grisly crime at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and said noropishach (humanoid ghouls) like he deserved no less than the choromotomo shasti (utmost punishment).
“My reaction is very clear. We have been demanding capital punishment from Day One, and we stand firm on it even today,” said Mamata after landing in Malda.
She had flown in a chopper from Murshidabad after a state government event there.
“However, this is the court’s verdict…. I can say what I have to say, or what my party has to say,” said the Trinamool Congress chief. “If this case was kept in our hands, we could have ensured an order for capital punishment a lot sooner.”
On her X handle, the chief minister wrote: “I am really shocked to see that the judgement of the Court today finds that it is not a Rarest of Rare case! I am convinced that it is indeed a rarest of rare case which demands capital punishment. How could the judgement come to the conclusion that it is not a rarest of rare case?!”
“I strongly feel that it is a heinous crime that warrants capital punishment. We will plead for capital punishment of the convict at the High Court now,” she added on X.
The CBI that reports to Prime Minister Narendra Modi took well over five months to seek capital punishment in vain after the August 9 crime was handed to the central agency by Calcutta High Court on August 13.
Mamata contrasted this with the action by the state police and its agencies, which saw swift delivery of justice by courts and the death penalty for culprits in recent cases of Joynagar, Farakka, and Hooghly in 50-60 days.
“This was a serious case, and everybody, all of us had unanimously demanded capital punishment,” she said.
“I don’t know how they fought (the case in court), what was done, what logic…. From our hands, the case was deliberately snatched away. We had said that if we were not able to, then give it to the CBI, we wouldn’t have any objection. Because we too want justice,” added the chief minister.
On August 16 last year, she had led a march — in the face of demands for her resignation in the wake of the RG Kar crime — intensifying her counteroffensive on the BJP, the CPM, and others who tried to politically corner her since the incident.
Mamata who holds home and health departments had been widely criticised and jeered at for conducting the 1.8km march between the crossings at Moulali and Dorina in the heart of Calcutta, demanding capital punishment by August 18. She had absolved her dispensation of the countless charges that had been levelled against it.
After the CBI took over, it took nearly two months to file a chargesheet in October, and the central agency largely agreed with the preliminary outcome of the Kolkata Police investigation that had allegedly been compromised by the ruling dispensation here. The CBI framed charges another month later and the trial began on November 11.
Asked if she believed there were lapses at the CBI end, Mamata said: “I cannot say this.”
“But I am saying this as a lawyer. I have not seen the details, the documents…. But had there been an order for capital punishment, I would have at least been able to find some consolation for my mind,” she added.
Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has said in his close circles that rapists have no place in society and firmly emphasised that they deserve capital punishment.
