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Kolkata court holds Sanjay Roy guilty in RG Kar rape and murder case

Jan 18, 2025 04:25 PM IST

Kolkata’s Sealdah court pronounced the verdict around 3pm and said the quantum of punishment will be announced on Monday

Kolkata: Kolkata’s Sealdah court on Saturday held Sanjay Roy, the prime suspect in the August 9 rape and murder of a post-graduate trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, guilty under three sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), lawyers said.

Lawyers and others watch Sanjay Roy being brought to the Sealdah court in Kolkata on Saturday. (PTI)
Lawyers and others watch Sanjay Roy being brought to the Sealdah court in Kolkata on Saturday. (PTI)

Anirban Das, the additional district and sessions judge, pronounced the verdict around 3pm in a crowded courtroom and said the quantum of punishment will be announced on Monday.

“The minimum punishment for your crime is life imprisonment and maximum punishment is death sentence,” the judge said, addressing Roy, who claimed to be innocent.

Partha Sarathi Dutta, the lawyer representing the Central Bureau of Investigation, which probed the crime, said Roy was found guilty under sections 66 (rape), 64 (causing injury resulting in death) and 103 (1) (murder) of BNS.

The in-camera trial in the case ended on January 9.

“We demanded maximum possible punishment for Sanjay Roy,” the CBI’s lawyer said.

The CBI inquiry was ordered by the Calcutta high court on August 13 amid mass protests across India. The Chief Justice of India’s bench took over the hearing on September 20 through a suo motu petition.

The trial of Roy, a former Kolkata Police civic volunteer who was named as the principal accused in the 31-year-old doctor’s rape and murder, took place every day (except holidays) for two months at the Sealdah court. The judge examined 51 witnesses.

Roy was arrested by the Kolkata police hours after the crime. Charges against him were framed by CBI on October 4.

During the trial, which citizens and the media were barred from witnessing, Roy’s lawyer Saurav Banerjee argued that evidence against the suspect was planted to frame him, lawyers who attended the hearings said.

Amartya Dey, a lawyer representing the victim’s family at the Sealdah court, demanded death sentence for Roy but argued that he was not the sole perpetrator.

The victim’s parents moved the Supreme Court in early-January demanding punishment for other suspects in the crime. They have alleged that their daughter was a victim of a larger conspiracy.

The 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, although both were arrested by CBI and charged with tampering of evidence.

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

When the trial ended, the victim’s father alleged that CBI followed the footsteps of the Kolkata police, which, too, claimed that the crime was committed by Roy.

“We want to see Roy punished but it was not possible for him to commit the crime alone. The DNA tests (done by CBI) indicated the presence of four other persons at the crime scene,” the victim’s father said on Saturday before the verdict was announced.

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