Kolkata, Jan 20 (IANS) Hours after a special court here awarded life imprisonment to Sanjay Roy, the sole accused in the rape and murder of a lady doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in August last year, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that West Bengal government will challenge the order in Calcutta High Court soon.
In a statement issued on Monday morning, she had also made it clear that the state government will be seeking the “death penalty” at the Calcutta High Court for the victim.
“I strongly feel that it is a heinous crime that warrants capital punishment. We will plead for capital punishment of the convict at the High Court now,” the statement by the Chief Minister said.
According to her, she is deeply shocked at the judgment of the special court which does not consider the crime as the “rarest of rare crimes.” “I am convinced that it is indeed a rarest of rare cases which demands capital punishment. How could the judgment come to the conclusion that it is not the rarest of rare cases? We want to insist upon the death penalty in this most sinister and sensitive case,” the Chief Minister’s statement read.
“Recently, in the last 3/4 months, we have been able to ensure capital/ maximum punishment for convicts in such crimes. Then, why, in this case, has capital punishment not been awarded?” the Chief Minister’s statement added.
Earlier in the day, immediately after the sentence was pronounced, the Chief Minister expressed her displeasure and dissatisfaction over the quantum of the sentence.
“We demanded the ‘death penalty’ for the convict. I don’t know how…..Had the case been in our hands (read state police or Kolkata Police), the death sentence would have been pronounced much earlier,” the Chief Minister told media persons just after the sentence was pronounced by the special court.
However, when specifically asked whether the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had failed to carry out the investigation properly thus leading to just “life imprisonment” and not “death penalty,” the Chief Minister refused to make any direct comment.
“I do not want to say anything on these lines. All I can say is that recently in the three cases of similar rape and murder which were handled by the state police, the “death penalty’ was pronounced within a much shorter period,” the Chief Minister said.
