CBI moves HC seeking death penalty for RG Kar convict

PTI, January 22, 2025 : The Central Bureau of Investigation filed an appeal on Wednesday before the Calcutta high court, seeking death sentence for Sanjay Roy, who was sentenced to "life imprisonment until death" by a Sealdah court in the rape-cum-murder case of an on-duty doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, officials said.

The agency made the move after receiving a legal advice that the brutal rape and murder of the 31-year-old trainee doctor comes under the "rarest of rare" category deserving capital punishment, they said.

Highly placed officials said the CBI was unanimous that the case deserves nothing but death penalty, seeing the manner in which the doctor was killed in her medical college.

The CBI's plea seeking death penalty for Roy was turned down by the trial court, where Additional District and Sessions Judge Anirban Das said the crime did not fall under the "rarest of rare" category.

"The CBI prayed for the death penalty. The defence lawyer prayed that a jail term be given instead of the death penalty. This crime does not fall under the 'rarest of the rare' category," the judge said on Monday while sentencing Roy.

"I am sentencing you to life imprisonment, meaning till the last day of your life, for causing injury during the act of committing rape on the victim that led to her death...," he told Roy.

The West Bengal government has already approached the high court, challenging the verdict and seeking death penalty for Roy, which took up the matter on Wednesday but did not decide on the appeal.

The high court said it would hear the CBI, the victim's family and the convict before deciding on the admission of the state government's appeal. The high court said it will hear the matter on January 27.

The CBI opposed the state's right to file an appeal in the case during the hearing, saying that it was the prosecuting agency, hence, it had the right to appeal on the grounds of inadequacy of the sentence.

Appearing for the CBI, Deputy Solicitor General Rajdeep Majumdar opposed the state's submission, maintaining that the West Bengal government does not have the right to appeal against the trial court's order on the ground of inadequacy.

He submitted that the CBI had prayed for awarding capital punishment to Roy before the trial court.

Within hours of proceedings in the high court, the CBI went ahead and filed the appeal against the order of the Sealdah court and demanded enhancement of "life imprisonment until death" sentence awarded to Roy on the ground that it was a "rarest of rare" case.

The trainee doctor was raped and killed in the early hours of August 9 in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital when she had gone to have rest during her graveyard shift.

Her body with severe injury marks was found inside the hall by a doctor the next morning.

Civic volunteer Roy was arrested the next day based on CCTV footage in which he was seen entering the seminar hall at 4.03 am on the day of the incident.

On August 13, the Calcutta High Court ordered the transfer of the probe from Kolkata Police to the CBI, which took over the case on August 14.

The Sealdah court judgement sparing Roy from death penalty revoked sharp reactions from political parties and parents of the victim doctor.

After the verdict was pronounced, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that had the case been handled by Kolkata Police, the death penalty would have been ensured.

"All of us have demanded the death sentence, but the court has given a life term until death. The case was forcibly taken from us. Had it been with (Kolkata) police, we would have ensured that he was served a death sentence," she told reporters.

BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya, who is also the party's organisational co-incharge for West Bengal, had called for appealing against the judgement and for probe agencies to investigate the role of the then Kolkata Police commissioner and the chief minister for allegedly destroying the evidence.

"Life imprisonment and Rs 50,000 fine for Sanjoy Roy, accused in the RG Kar rape and murder case, is travesty of justice. The verdict must be appealed," he said on X.

The junior doctors, who were at the forefront of the protests following the crime, had called for further investigation into the larger conspiracy allegations raised by the victim's parents.