An Indian Court has sentenced a police volunteer, Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment after being convicted of the rape and murder of a female junior doctor at the hospital she worked at in the eastern city of Kolkata.
The delivering Judge, Anirban Das handed down the judgment after rejecting demands for the death penalty of the 33-year-old convict saying it was not “the rarest of the rare cases”.
Earlier, before the ruling on Monday, the police volunteer pleaded not guilty to the charges, maintaining his innocence and alleging that he had been framed.
However, after reviewing the evidence brought before her by the prosecuting counsel, Justice Das ruled that he must spend his life behind bars.
After the hearing, the deceased parents broke into tears inside the court, saying they were “shocked” at the sentence and had hoped her murderer would be hanged, for a case that highlighted the chronic issue of violence against women in the world’s most populous country.
“We are shocked by the verdict. We will continue our fight, and won’t let investigations stop, Come what may, we will fight for justice,” the victim’s father said in tears.
Roy’s journey to the correctional center began after the 31-year-old trainee doctor’s bloodied body was found in a classroom at the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9. An autopsy found she had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
The federal police who investigated the case had argued the crime belonged to the “rarest-of-rare” category and demanded the death penalty for Roy. The state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) party had also demanded the death of Roy.
Roy was arrested a day after the crime, and arguments in the case began in November. The assault prompted India’s Supreme Court to set up a national task force to suggest ways to enhance safety in government hospitals.
After the assault, doctors and medical students across India held protests and rallies demanding better security. Thousands of women also protested in the streets, demanding speedy trial in the country’s slow-moving justice system.
India imposes the death penalty, although it is rarely carried out in practice. The last executions carried out were in March 2020 – of four men convicted of the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in the capital New Delhi.
The doctor’s killing drew comparisons with the 2012 incident and led to demands by doctors at government hospitals for better security.
Activists say new sentencing requirements have not deterred rape and the number of recorded rape cases has increased. In 2022, police recorded 31,516 reports of rape – a 20 percent jump from 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
