The West Bengal government has taken steps to challenge the recent ruling of a special court that sentenced Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a junior doctor from the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
On Tuesday, State Advocate General Kishor Datta presented the case to the Calcutta High Court, requesting a “death penalty” for the convicted individual. The division bench, comprising Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi, has accepted the petition filed by the state government.
Following the sentencing announcement, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared on Monday evening that the state would contest the special court’s decision in the Calcutta High Court. She emphasized the government’s intention to pursue the “death penalty” for the offender. “I firmly believe that this is a heinous crime deserving of capital punishment. We will advocate for the death penalty for the convict in the High Court,” the Chief Minister stated.
She expressed her profound dismay at the special court’s ruling, which she felt did not classify the crime as the “rarest of rare.” “I am convinced that this case is indeed one of the rarest of rare instances that necessitates capital punishment. We are determined to push for the death penalty in this particularly grave and sensitive matter,” the Chief Minister remarked.
She noted that in recent months, the state has successfully secured capital or maximum punishment for offenders in similar cases, questioning why this particular case did not result in a death sentence. “We have called for the ‘death penalty’ for the convict. I am uncertain how this situation arose… Had the investigation been under our jurisdiction (referring to the state police or Kolkata Police), the death sentence would have been delivered much sooner,” the Chief Minister added. In delivering the sentence, special court judge Anirban Das stated that the Central Bureau of Investigation’s assertion that Roy’s actions constituted “the rarest of rare crimes” was not substantiated.
(Newsroom staff only edited this story for style from a syndicated feed)
