R G Kar rape-murder verdict: Sanjoy Roy spared of noose, gets life term till death

Roy’s counsel had pleaded for any “alternative punishment” other than the death penalty for him, arguing that he should be allowed to reform himself.

Kolkata: A court in Kolkata on Monday sentenced Sanjay Roy, a contract employee of the city police, to life imprisonment for raping and murdering a postgraduate trainee doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital run by the West Bengal government in the state capital on August 9 last year.

Though the Central Bureau of Investigation, which probed the rape and murder, sought the death penalty for Roy, Additional District and Sessions Judge Anirban Das observed that it did not meet the criteria of the “rarest of the rare cases” and that was why the convict did not deserve capital punishment.

"In the realm of modern justice, we must rise above the primitive instinct of ‘an eye for an eye’ or ‘a life for a life’. Our duty is not to match brutality with brutality but to elevate humanity through wisdom, compassion, and a deeper understanding of justice,” the judge said, adding that a civilized society would be judged by its capacity to reform, rehabilitate, and heal rather than exact revenge.

The parents of the victim expressed displeasure over the quantum of punishment. “My daughter was raped and murdered while on duty in the hospital. Isn’t it a rarest of the rare crimes? It is a failure of the CBI, which could not establish it as the rarest of the rare cases before the court,” the mother of the victim told journalists after the judge pronounced the quantum of the sentence. “We haven’t yet got justice,” added her father, who also said that he would not accept the amount of Rs 17 lakh that the judge ordered the government of West Bengal to pay him as compensation for the rape and murder of his daughter. “We cannot sell out our daughter. Her soul will only rest in peace when the real culprits will be punished.”

Though the CBI accused only Roy, and no one else, of raping and murdering the 31-year-old postgraduate doctor and the court also convicted him on Saturday, the parents of the victims as well as the medics and civil society activists, who had taken to the streets to protest against the heinous crime, expressed doubt if could be committed by a single person. They vowed to continue their “fight for justice” as long as all other culprits would not be brought to book.

Roy, a member of the contractual support staff of the Kolkata Police, was found guilty under Sections 64 (rape), 66 (punishment for causing death), and 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The judge awarded him life imprisonment under Section 64, along with a fine of Rs 50,000. He would have to spend an additional five months in jail in case he failed to pay the fine. He was also sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 103(1), with a Rs 50,000 fine, and another five months in jail if the fine would not be paid. The judge also awarded life imprisonment till death under Section 66 of the BNS.

All the sentences will run concurrently, said the judge, who heard the final statement of the convict, his defence counsel, the victim’s family, and the CBI before pronouncing the quantum of the punishment.

“I am being framed and have not committed any crime. I have not done anything, and still, I have been held guilty,” Roy told the court ahead of sentencing in the case.

The lawyers representing the CBI and the parents of the victim pleaded for the maximum punishment for the convict, arguing that the crime was one of the "rarest of the rare”.

Roy’s counsel, however, pleaded for any “alternative punishment” other than the death penalty for him, arguing that he should be allowed to reform himself.

“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...,” the judge told Roy.

He pointed out that the Supreme Court had consistently underscored that the death penalty should be reserved for cases where the community's collective conscience is profoundly shocked. “Given these considerations, it would be inappropriate to accede to the prosecution’s request for the death penalty,” he noted in his judgment.

Roy was arrested by the Kolkata Police just a day after the 31-year-old doctor had been found raped and murdered in the seminar room of the Department of Chest Medicine on the third floor of the RGKMCH. The city police had been criticised by protesting junior doctors and civil society organisations as well as the TMC’s political opponents, the BJP and the CPI(M), for failure to conduct a fair probe and for allegedly tampering with evidence. The parents of the victim had filed a petition before the Calcutta High Court, which had on August 13 ordered the CBI to take over the probe.

But, seven weeks later, the CBI had on October 7 filed a chargesheet at a local court, accusing no one else but only Roy, a member of the contractual support staff of Kolkata Police, of committing the crime.