The Calcutta High Court on Friday rejected the West Bengal government’s appeal challenging the sentence of life imprisonment to Sanjay Roy, convicted of the hospital rape-killing case, while accepted a similar appeal to the CBI.
Both the CBI and the state government had filed an appeal in the High Court requesting Roy to sentence him to death.
A division bench of Justice Debangasu Basak and Justice Mohammad Sabbar Rashidi said that since the CBI had investigated, his appeal challenging the sentence is accepted for hearing.
The state government had argued before the High Court that apart from the central agency, it too could file an appeal, considering the sentence given by the lower court inadequate.
On August 9 last year, a doctor was murdered after raping the RG and inside the seminar room of the Medical College and Hospital. The next day Roy was arrested by Kolkata Police.
The Calcutta High Court later handed over the investigation to the CBI. The central agency filed a charge sheet in the lower court on October 7 and on November 4, charges were framed against Roy.
On January 20, the lower court sentenced Roy to life imprisonment and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Both the CBI and the state government challenged the sentence given to Roy and filed separate appeal in the Calcutta High Court and requested to sentence the death sentence. The bench reserved its decision on both the appeals on 27 January.
