Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Tuesday (January 21) has moved the Calcutta High Court seeking death penalty for convict Sanjay Roy in the rape and murder case of an on-duty woman doctor at state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 last year.
The Sealdah trial court on Monday sentenced convict Roy to life imprisonment until death in the rape and murder case of woman doctor.
Trial court refused to impose death penalty on Roy
The trial court, however, refused to impose death penalty on Roy, saying the case did not meet the stringent criteria for being classified as “rarest of the rare” case.
The West Bengal government on Tuesday mentioned the matter before a bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and said that the state government was moving an appeal against the trial court order and seeking death penalty for Roy, Bar and Bench reported.
Trial court last week held Roy guilty of offences
The Sealdah trial court last week held prime accused Roy guilty of committing the rape and murder of the on-duty woman doctor at the seminar room of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 last year.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Which took over the investigation of the case from the Kolkata Police on the High Court orders, sought death penalty for Roy, submitting the case fell under the “rarest of the rare” case.
What did the trial court say?
The trial court, while refusing to impose death penalty on Roy, said that in the manner in which the offence of the rape and murder was committed by convict Roy, one can only say that convict’s action was barbaric and brutal and the gruesome acts of the convict were diabolic in their conception and cruel in execution, however, the present case, as per the guidelines set by the Supreme Court in the Bachan Singh case, does not meet the stringent criteria for being classified as “rarest of the rare.”
“Referring to the landmark Bachan Singh case, which established guidelines for imposing the death penalty, it is evident that this case does not meet the stringent criteria for being classified as “rarest of the rare.” The Supreme Court has consistently emphasized that the death penalty should be used only in exceptional circumstances where the collective conscience of the community is so shocked that it expects the holders of judicial power to inflict the death penalty,” the trial court said.
