RG Kar: HC verdict on Bengal govt’s plea seeking death for convict

Kolkata: A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court will deliver the verdict on the admissibility of the petition by the West Bengal government seeking death penalty for Sanjay Roy, the sole convict in the R.G. Kar rape and murder tragedy, on Friday morning.

Both the West Bengal government and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have approached Calcutta High Court’s Division Bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi seeking death penalty for Roy.

However, at the same time, the CBI had opposed the petition by the state government on the grounds that it was their officials who had been conducting the probe following a previous order of the Calcutta High Court.

Hence, the central agency and victim’s parents had the right to make the petition and not the state government, since the latter was not a party in the case. The hearing on the admissibility of the petitions by both CBI and the state government concluded on January 27. But the Division Bench reserved the judgement and the same will be delivered on Friday morning.

However, the contention of the state government’s counsel was that in this particular case the state government could appeal under Section 377 (which allows the state government to appeal a sentence if it considers it inadequate) and Section 378 (relating to appeals against acquittal orders for cognisable and non-bailable offenses) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC).

Last month a special court in Kolkata sentenced Roy to life imprisonment for the crime of rape and murder of the woman junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in August last year. The judge of the special court observed that since the crime could not be considered as the “rarest of rare”, the sole convict was sentenced to life imprisonment instead of death penalty.

However, first the West Bengal government and then the CBI approached the same Division Bench of Justice Basak and Justice Rashidi challenging the special court order and seeking death penalty for Roy. The CBI, at the same time, challenged the admissibility of the petition by the state government.

To recall, after the body of the victim was recovered from a seminar hall within the premises of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital premises on the morning of August 9 last year, the initial investigation was carried out by the Kolkata Police, whose sleuths also arrested Roy. Later, the CBI took charge of the investigation following an order of the Calcutta High Court. –IANS src/rad