In a significant development in the RG Kar Medical College rape and murder case, the Calcutta High Court on Friday rejected the West Bengal government’s petition seeking the death penalty for Sanjay Roy, the sole convict in the case. However, the court admitted a similar plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), seeking capital punishment for Roy.
The Division Bench, comprising Justices Debangsu Basak and Shabbar Rashidi, ruled that only the CBI, as the investigating agency, had the legal standing to file such a petition, while the state government lacked the locus standi to do so.
The case, which has gripped the nation since August last year, involves the brutal rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The incident, which occurred inside the hospital’s seminar room, sparked nationwide outrage.
ALSO READ: Mahakumbh 2025: Fire Breaks Out At Shankaracharya Marg; Tenders Rushed To Spot | Updates
Sanjay Roy, a former civic volunteer attached to the Kolkata Police, was arrested the day after the crime and subsequently convicted by a special court in Kolkata last month. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment, ruling that the crime did not fall under the "rarest of rare" category, which would have warranted the death penalty.
Dissatisfied with the verdict, both the West Bengal government and the CBI filed separate appeals in the Calcutta High Court, challenging the life sentence and seeking the death penalty for Roy. However, the Division Bench’s ruling on Friday clarified that only the CBI, as the primary investigating agency, had the authority to pursue such an appeal.
However, the parents of the victim have already claimed that they do not want the death penalty for Roy since they believe that the erstwhile civic volunteer attached to the Kolkata Police was not the sole culprit in the ghastly rape and murder of their daughter.
The victim's parents have already been subjected to unprecedented verbal attacks from a section of the ruling Trinamool Congress leadership for their observation against the death penalty for the sole convict now.
The CBI, which took over the investigation in the wake of public pressure, filed its charge sheet in October last year, leading to Roy’s conviction in January. The trial court’s decision to award life imprisonment instead of the death penalty was based on the assessment that the crime, while heinous, did not meet the threshold for the “rarest of rare” classification.