Indian police volunteer gets life sentence for rape, murder of junior doctor | News about sexual assault
The murder of a 31-year-old medic at a government hospital in the city of Kolkata has highlighted the chronic problem of violence against women in the country.
An Indian court has handed down a life sentence to a police volunteer convicted of raping and murdering a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata.
Justice Anirban Das on Monday rejected requests for the death penalty for Sanjay Roy, saying it was not “the rarest of rare cases”, and ordered that the 33-year-old convict must spend his life behind bars.
Roy has consistently maintained his innocence, claiming he was framed. The verdict can be appealed to a higher court.
The bloody body of a 31-year-old medical trainee was found in the classroom at RG Kar Government Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata on August 9. An autopsy revealed that she had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
Her parents broke down in tears in court on Monday, saying they were “shocked” by the sentence and had hoped her killer would be hanged, in a case that highlighted the chronic problem of violence against women in the world’s most populous country.
“We are shocked by the verdict,” the victim’s father told the AFP news agency, tears streaming down his face. “We will continue our fight and we will not let the investigations stop… No matter what, we will fight for justice.”
Family members cannot be identified under India’s Sexual Violence Reporting Act.
Federal police investigating the case claimed the crime was the “rarest of the rare” and demanded the death penalty for Roy. The state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) party has also demanded his death.
Roy was arrested the day after the crime, and hearings in the case began in November. The attack prompted India’s Supreme Court to set up a national task force to suggest ways to increase security in government hospitals.
After the attack, doctors and medical students across India held protests and assemblies that require better 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 most recent executions took place in March 2020 – four men convicted of the 2012 gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in the capital, New Delhi.
The doctor’s killing has drawn comparisons with the 2012 incident and led to calls from doctors in government hospitals for better security.
Activists say the new sentencing requirements have not deterred rape and that the number of recorded rape cases has increased. In 2022, police recorded 31,516 reports of rape – a 20 per cent jump from 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
