An Indian court has awarded the life sentence to a police volunteer convicted of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the hospital she worked at in the eastern city of Kolkata.
Judge Anirban Das on Monday rejected demands for the death penalty for Sanjay Roy, saying it was not “the rarest of the rare cases”, and ordered that the 33-year-old convict must spend his life behind bars.
Roy has consistently maintained his innocence, alleging he had been framed. He can appeal the judgement in a higher court.
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.
Her parents broke into tears inside the court on Monday, 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,” the victim’s father told the AFP news agency, tears running down his face. “We will continue our fight, and won’t let investigations stop… Come what may, we will fight for justice.”
Family members cannot be identified in keeping with Indian law on the reporting of sexual violence cases.
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 death for him.
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 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.
The post India police volunteer gets life sentence for rape, murder of junior doctor appeared first on Al Jazeera.
