
“Fight will Continue till Guilty is Hanged:” Victim’s Father, TMC Government Moves HC
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 21: While the West Bengal government has already moved the Calcutta High Court seeking enhancement of the lower court’s sentence of life imprisonment to the convict of the rape and murder of the on-duty postgraduate trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, the parents of the victim have also vowed to fight till the end to ensure that the guilty was hanged to death for the gruesome murder of their daughter.
The additional district and sessions judge of the Sealdah Court Anirban Das found the accused Sanjay Roy, a former civic volunteer, guilty, but only awarded life imprisonment and not death as sought by the woman’s family as the judge said the case did not fit the “rarest of rare” category.
The Mamata Banerjee government challenged the trial court’s life imprisonment order against Sanjay Roy in the High Court demanding that he be given the death penalty. Advocate General Kishore Dutta moved the division bench headed by Justice Debangshu Basak seeking the death penalty for Sanjay Roy.
Mamata Banerjee’s government was criticised for allegedly mishandling the case. On the judgement, the West Bengal government had expressed disappointment and said the Kolkata Police would have ensured the death penalty. The RG Kar case sparked massive protests after the 34-year old trainee doctor was found dead on August 9. The case was initially probed by Kolkata Police and was later transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the behest of the Calcutta High Court and later approved by the Supreme Court.
Sanjay Roy was found guilty under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita relating to rape and murder. The trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment and the court ordered for financial assistance of Rs 17 lakh to be paid to the victim’s parents.
The victim’s father said the family was shocked at the trial court’s judgement awarding only life imprisonment and questioned the role of the CBI and even the government’s push for capital punishment now. He insisted that he would not accept any compensation. He claimed that the investigation has not been done properly, which is why the CBI could not convince the court. “This is a failure of the CBI. The CBI charge sheet could not prove this case as the rarest of rare. That’s the reason, nothing else,” he said.
About the convict, he said, “I saw him for 15-20 days during the trial. Roy is a cold-blooded murderer. The judge asked him 104 questions. The judge told him that so many questions are never asked. In spite of that, he did not say what actually happened. Yesterday also the judge gave him the opportunity to speak, but he was saying all absurd things. He is a criminal and he will never tell the truth.
“We had 54 questions with which we went to the High Court. The HC had told us that as the case was monitored by the Supreme Court (SC), their take was important. We have gone to the SC. We will fight this battle both on the road and in court. I still remember initially the CBI had stated that they are looking into the matter properly. Even then, the judge in court had asked, “If everything is fine, why do the parents know nothing?” The fight will continue.
Asked about the Mamata Banerjee government moving the High Court against the lower court’s sentence, he asked, “What the chief minister is trying to show now? That she is the one who fights for justice? We don’t want this show. Why does she want to finish off Sanjay Roy quickly? Is there something there? She could not give my daughter, who was working under the state government, protection. When Banerjee came, we told her more than one person was involved. She told the CP to find the others and give “danda,” but nothing happened. The police did nothing, then we went to court. Later she told us by giving this to the CBI, we have put the investigation in water.
“My daughter was a state government employee, how can they shrug off their responsibility? It was the government’s duty to look after her. How did intoxicated people get into a hospital? The CBI made so many mistakes that the judge did not consider this rare,” he said.