RG Kar case: Sanjoy Roy sexually assaulted doctor before throttling her to death, says judge

Kolkata: Pronouncing sole accused Sanjay Roy guilty of rape and murder of an on-duty doctor at state-run RG Kar hospital, Sealdah court judge Anirban Das on Saturday said the convict had attacked the postgraduate trainee while she was asleep in the hospital's seminar room around 4 am on August 9, 2024.

While the guilty verdict was passed by the judge in open court, the trial was held in-camera.

The additional district and sessions judge noted that Roy had sexually assaulted the doctor and thereafter throttled her to death. "You throttled her and covered her face and she ultimately died owing to the attack," he said.

The judge said that in the more than 160-page judgment, which will be completed after pronouncing the sentence on Monday, he had considered the place of occurrence of the crime and the mobile tower location of the accused.

"I have criticised some activities of police and hospital authorities which came out in the evidence," the judge said.

He noted that the case of the prosecution stood on circumstantial evidence.

Das said some questions raised by the complainant, the victim's father, have been categorically answered in the judgment.

"On the basis of these allegations, charges were framed against you (Roy) under sections 64, 66 and 103(1) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

"On the basis of the statements of the witnesses and the documents produced in this matter, your guilt has been proved and you are being pronounced guilty," the judge said.

Das said section 64 (rape) of BNS entails a punishment of not less than 10 years and can go up to life term.

Section 66 (punishment for causing death or resulting in persistent vegetative state of victim) provides for punishment of not less than 20 years, which may extend to imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person's natural life, or with death.

Section 103(1) (murder) of BNS provides for death penalty or imprisonment for life to a person convicted of the crime.

The judge said the statements of the witnesses and documents provided in the case have gone on to prove the guilt of Roy in the crime.

Das said he considered several points, including the profile of the victim, her duty hours and when and where she was last seen alive between August 8 and 9 of 2024, the intervening night when she suffered the crime.

The judge said he also considered when and where the victim was found dead and who had first discovered that she had expired, the cause and time of death.

The court also looked into whether there was any evidence of sexual assault on her, whether the assailant was a single person or a group of persons and who had committed the brutal act on the victim.

Observing that some activities of the head of the department, the medical superintendent and vice principal (MSVP) of the hospital and the then principal of R G Kar Medical College Sandip Ghosh created "some confusion" in his mind, the judge said these have been explained in the judgment.

Ghosh was accused of tampering with evidence in the case and had been arrested by the CBI, along with the officer in-charge of the local Tala police station, who was accused of alleged delay in filing of FIR in the rape and murder of the post-graduate trainee doctor.

Ghosh, who is on judicial remand in another case of alleged financial irregularities at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital being probed by the CBI, is behind the bars despite being granted bail in the rape-murder case. The police officer was enlarged on bail in the case.