The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government Tuesday moved the Calcutta High Court, challenging the Sealdah court’s order sentencing R G Kar rape and murder convict Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment. The government has sought capital punishment for Roy.
A Division Bench led by Justice Debangshu Basak has allowed the matter to be filed.
This comes a day after Mamata said she’s not “satisfied” with the trial court’s verdict and that she would seek death penalty for Roy. “From the first day, we’ve been demanding capital punishment. The case was taken away from us (Kolkata Police), and the Central Bureau of Investigation did the investigation. There should have been ultimate punishment for a person who committed such a crime,” she said while speaking with the media in Murshidabad.
In a post on X following the sentencing on Monday, Banerjee wrote: “In the R.G. Kar junior doctor’s rape and murder case, I’m really shocked to see that the court judgment finds that it’s not the rarest of rare case,” she said on X. ‘We want and insist upon the death penalty in this most sinister and sensitive case. Recently, in the last 3/4 months, we have been able to ensure capital/ maximum punishment for convicts in such crimes. Then, why, in this case, has capital punishment not been awarded?”
On Saturday, Additional District and Sessions judge Anirban Das found Roy, a 35-year-old civil volunteer attached to the Kolkata Police, guilty of the August 9 rape and murder, which triggered massive protests by junior doctors in West Bengal.
Even the Trinamool Congress had held rallies and dharnas demanding the death penalty for Roy.
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