NEW DELHI: A Kolkata court on Monday sentenced RG Kar rape-murder case convict Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000. The Civil and Criminal court in Sealdah pronounced the sentence as the family of the 31-year-old doctor demanded strictest punishment for the convict.
The court, while sentencing Sanjay Roy who was convicted of rape and murder of 31-year-old doctor, refused to award death penalty saying it was ‘not a rarest of rare case‘. Roy was on Saturday held guilty of sexually assaulting the doctor and throttling her to death in August last year.
Earlier, during the proceedings, the CBI lawyer pleaded for the highest penalty for the convict, calling the crime “rarest of the rare”.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) lawyer had demanded death penalty saying, “This is a case which comes under the rarest of rare category. The maximum punishment, which is the death penalty, should be awarded to Roy to maintain people’s faith in society.”
The defence lawyer of Roy, however, had argued that the prosecution must provide evidence, which can prove that there is no possibility of reform of the convict.
“We pray for any punishment other than the death penalty,” the defence lawyer had submitted.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Roy had maintained that he was framed in the case.
“I am being framed and have not committed any crime. I have not done anything, and still, I have been held guilty,” Roy had told the court ahead of sentencing.
“I was beaten up in the prison and was forced to sign papers,” he had claimed.
“When the CBI took over the case, a medical test was done at a railway hospital here, but nothing was shown in it,” Roy told the court.
The court also directed the West Bengal government to pay compensation of Rs 17 lakh to the doctor’s family.
“Since the victim died while on duty in the hospital, her place of work, it is the responsibility of the state to pay compensation to the family of the doctor – Rs 10 lakh for the death and Rs 7 lakh for the rape,” Anirban Das, the Additional District and Sessions Judge in Sealdah court said.