Kolkata: Sealdah Civil and Criminal Court on Monday sentenced Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a junior doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital here in August last year.
A fine of Rs 50,000 has also been slapped on Roy.
Sessions Judge Anirban Das held that the case did not fall into the “rarest of rare” categories, warranting a death sentence.
Additionally, the state government was directed to pay the victim’s family a sum of Rs 17 lakhs as compensation.
During the hearing, the CBI had argued that this is the rarest of the rare crime and sought a death penalty for the convict. “The doctor was doing a service to the society,” it added.
The civic volunteer, however, maintained that he was innocent when asked if he had anything to say about the quantum of punishment. “I have been falsely implicated. I told you before that I always wear a Rudraksha chain. If I had committed the crime, it would have broken. I was torture… they forced me to sign many papers. I was not given a chance to speak. You have seen all of this, sir. I told you before as well,” he told the court.
The entire Sealdah court area was cordoned off with a three-tier barricade system and massive police deployment ahead of the hearing.
On January 18, the court declared Roy guilty of the crime under three sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which entailed a minimum sentence of life imprisonment with the maximum being capital punishment.
He was convicted on the basis of forensic evidence, CCTV footage, and phone signal. The scratches on is body had matched the blood and skin samples collected from the victim’s fingernails. Hair samples collected from the crime scene – the seminar hall at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital – also matched the DNA of Roy, the reports added.
