KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday stated she was not glad with the court docket verdict sentencing Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment for the rape and homicide of a trainee physician and asserted that the convict would have been sentenced to demise a very long time in the past 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 stated minutes after Anirban Das, the extra district and classes decide of the trial court docket, introduced the decision round 2.50pm.
Roy was sentenced to jail for remainder of life underneath sections 66 (rape), 64 (inflicting harm leading to demise) and 103 (1) (homicide) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Roy, a civic volunteer who labored for Kolkata police, was arrested on August 10, a day after the crime, however handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following an order the Calcutta excessive court docket handed on August 13. The Chief Justice of India’s bench took over the listening to on September 20 via a suo motu petition amid nationwide protests.
Echoing the dissatisfaction aired by the sufferer’s mother and father, medical doctors from state-run hospitals and members of varied residents’ boards that relentlessly carried out a motion for 5 months, the chief minister questioned the CBI’s skill to persuade the court docket that Roy deserved demise sentence.
Banerjee, who confronted criticism after the crime since she can be in control of the well being division, stated: “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 stated.
Two rallies, demanding additional trial, rolled out of the Sealdah court docket premises by 4pm. Extra rallies had been introduced by organisations representing medical doctors, nurses and residents.
“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 sufferer’s mom instructed the media.
The court docket additionally ordered the state to offer compensation of ₹17 lakh to the sufferer’s household. The mother and father addressed the decide and refused to take compensation.
The decide handed the order after listening to Roy, who pleaded innocence, the sufferer’s mother and father and CBI. The CBI prayed for optimum punishment, calling the crime “rarest of the rare,” throughout a 36-minute listening to on Monday afternoon.
Whereas saying the sentence the decide stated he didn’t 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 many faces of the junior medical doctors’ motion stated exterior the Sealdah court docket.
The state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has been focused by opposition events since CBI has not but framed expenses towards Dr Sandip Ghosh, the previous principal of RG Kar Medical Faculty, and Abhijit Mondal, the native Tala police station’s former officer-in-charge.
Each had been arrested by CBI on September 14 and charged with tampering with proof.
Ghosh can be going through investigation in a separate case referring to monetary corruption on the hospital.
Ghosh and Mondal had been granted bail on December 13 as CBI did not file chargesheet in 90 days.
Samik Bhattacharya, chief spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP)’s Bengal unit, stated: “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 Docs, West Bengal, stated: “Our movement for justice will continue. We would not have changed our decision if Roy was sentenced to death.”