The murder of the 31-year-old doctor at a state-run hospital in Kolkata has highlighted the chronic issue of violence against women in the country.
An Indian court has sentenced a police volunteer who was convicted of raping and killing a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata to life imprisonment.
Justice Anirban Das on Monday Rejected demands for the death penalty for Sanjay Roy, saying it was not the “rarest of rare cases”, and ordered that the 33-year-old convict spend his life behind bars.
Roy has consistently maintained his innocence, claiming he has been framed. He can appeal the ruling to a higher court.
The body of the 31-year-old trainee doctor was covered in blood Found in classrooms At the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9. An autopsy showed that she had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
Her parents burst into tears in court on Monday, saying they were “shocked” by the ruling and had hoped her killer would be executed, in a case that highlighted the chronic issue of violence against women in the world’s most populous country.
“We are shocked by the ruling,” the victim’s father told Agence France-Presse, with tears streaming down his face. “We will continue our fight, and we will not allow the investigations to stop… No matter what happens, we will fight for justice.”
Family members cannot be identified in line with India’s law on reporting cases of sexual violence.
The federal police who investigated the case said the crime belonged to the category of “the rarest of its kind” and demanded the death penalty for Roy. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) party in the state also demanded his execution.
Roy was arrested a day after the crime, and arguments in the case began in November. The attack prompted the Supreme Court of India to form a national task force to suggest ways to enhance safety in government hospitals.
After the attack, doctors and medical students spread out across India Protests were organized And marches demanding improved security. Thousands of women also protested in the streets, demanding a speedy trial in the country’s slow justice system.
India imposes the death penalty, although it is rarely carried out in practice. The last executions were carried out in March 2020 – of four men convicted of the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in 2012 on a bus in the capital, New Delhi.
The doctor’s killing sparked comparisons with the 2012 incident and led to doctors in government hospitals calling for improved security.
Activists say that the requirements of the new provisions have not deterred rape, and the number of recorded rape cases has increased. In 2022, police recorded 31,516 reports of rape – a 20 percent increase on 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
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