Expected death sentence, says Mamata Banerjee on RG Kar Hospital verdict

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the convict would have been sentenced to death a long time ago if the case had stayed with the Kolkata police

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she was not satisfied with the court verdict sentencing Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a trainee doctor and asserted that the convict would have been sentenced to death a long time ago if the case had stayed with the Kolkata police.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. (PTI)

“I am surprised. My stand is very clear. I cannot comment on the court, but I am not satisfied. The state government prayed for death sentence from the very beginning. We were all expecting death sentence,” Banerjee said minutes after Anirban Das, the additional district and sessions judge of the trial court, announced the verdict around 2.50pm.

Roy was sentenced to jail for rest of life under sections 66 (rape), 64 (causing injury resulting in death) and 103 (1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Roy, a civic volunteer who worked for Kolkata police, was arrested on August 10, a day after the crime, but handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following an order the Calcutta high court passed on August 13. The Chief Justice of India’s bench took over the hearing on September 20 through a suo motu petition amid nationwide protests.

Echoing the dissatisfaction aired by the victim’s parents, doctors from state-run hospitals and members of various citizens’ forums that relentlessly carried out a movement for five months, the chief minister questioned the CBI’s ability to convince the court that Roy deserved death sentence.

Banerjee, who faced criticism after the crime since she is also in charge of the health department, said: “We were handling the investigation, but they took it away from us intentionally. We have ensured death sentence in three recent cases in around 60 days (of the crimes). This is a serious case. We could have ensured death sentence in this case long time ago.”

“It seems they (CBI) failed to establish the point. I don’t know what arguments they had put up in court. I was not in court,” Banerjee said.

Two rallies, demanding further trial, rolled out of the Sealdah court premises by 4pm. More rallies were announced by organisations representing doctors, nurses and citizens.

“We did not get justice today. It is the failure of the CBI. We are convinced since day one that Roy was not alone,” the victim’s mother told the media.

The court also ordered the state to give compensation of ₹17 lakh to the victim’s family. The parents addressed the judge and refused to take compensation.

The judge passed the order after hearing Roy, who pleaded innocence, the victim’s parents and CBI. The CBI prayed for maximum punishment, calling the crime “rarest of the rare,” during a 36-minute hearing on Monday afternoon.

While pronouncing the sentence the judge said he did not see the crime as “rarest of the rare.”

“If a doctor getting raped and killed while on duty inside a state government hospital is not rarest of the rare then what is? We cannot question a judge, but we can certainly question a judgement. We will move higher court,” Asfaqullah Naiya, one of the faces of the junior doctors’ movement said outside the Sealdah court.

The state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has been targeted by opposition parties since CBI has not yet framed charges against Dr Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar Medical College, and Abhijit Mondal, the local Tala police station’s former officer-in-charge.

Both were arrested by CBI on September 14 and charged with tampering with evidence.

Ghosh is also facing investigation in a separate case relating to financial corruption at the hospital.

Ghosh and Mondal were granted bail on December 13 as CBI failed to file chargesheet in 90 days.

Samik Bhattacharya, chief spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Bengal unit, said: “Deciding punishment is the discretion of a judge. It seems the court was also convinced that influential people were involved in the crime and Roy was not the sole perpetrator.”

Dr Punyabrata Gun, a convenor of the Joint Platform of Doctors, West Bengal, said: “Our movement for justice will continue. We would not have changed our decision if Roy was sentenced to death.”