The accused claimed he was being ‘falsely implicated’ and that an IPS officer was involved in the incident.
KOLKATA: Exactly 162 days after the heinous rape and murder of 31-year-old junior doctor at Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Sanjoy Roy, the sole accused, was held guilty of the crime by the Sealdah Sessions Court, which will pronounce the sentence on Monday. The Central Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the case, has sought the maximum punishment for the crime. However, the parents of the murdered doctor voiced dissatisfaction with the probe that was carried out by the CBI.
Reacting to the conviction of Sanjay Roy, the mother of the deceased doctor said they were still waiting for the other criminals to be arrested and punished. She further alleged that Roy had accomplices whom the CBI had not been able to identify yet.
“That Sanjay is guilty was proved through biological evidence. And that he stood silent during the trials in the court also proved his hand in torturing and killing my daughter. But he was not alone, others haven’t been arrested yet. So, justice hasn’t been delivered,” the victim’s mother said.
Noting that the case was yet to be completed, the mother also said that she and her husband would continue their fight for justice till the last day of their lives.
“The case is not complete. It will only be completed after the others who were involved in killing our daughter are punished. We will wait for that day… Till that day, we will not be able to sleep. That is the only thing we want now,” she said.
In the afternoon, the Additional District and Sessions Court, Sealdah, held the accused Sanjay Roy “guilty” of rape and murder.
Judge Anirban Das pronounced the verdict in the presence of the accused. The parents of the victim were also present in the court premises.
The Court said that it finds the accused guilty on the basis of evidence put forward by the Central Bureau of Investigation for which the highest punishment will be death and the least will be life imprisonment.
The judge said the accused was being held guilty of Sections 64, 66, and 103 (1) of Bharatiya Nyay Samhita. The judge informed Sanjay Roy that he had entered the hospital on August 9 and smothered the victim to death and committed sexual assault on her.
The CBI’s charge-sheet listed 11 pieces of evidence confirming his role in the crime, including CCTV footage that shows him entering and exiting the scene.
Sanjay Roy pleaded his innocence when the verdict was read out in the court. “I did not do this, sir. The ones who have done this, why are they not being held?” he asked the court.
Roy maintained that he was innocent and said he was being “falsely implicated”, adding that an IPS officer was involved in the incident. “I have been falsely implicated. I have not done this. Those who have done so are being let go. One IPS [officer] was involved,” he said.
The judge said that Roy would get a chance to speak on Monday before the sentencing.
The parents of the deceased doctor broke down after the verdict was pronounced. “You have lived up to the faith we had placed in you,” the victim’s father told the judge.
Despite the police denying permission to hold any gathering, a crowd had assembled outside the Sealdah Court complex where people waited eagerly for the judgement. The crowd, which comprised many junior doctors, said that they did not believe that Sanjay Roy was the only person responsible for the crime.
Junior doctor at RG Kar College and Hospital, Aniket Mahato, who was one of the leaders of the doctors’ protests, said: “What we have been saying from day one is that this man is a civic volunteer. How did he manage to enter the medical college and commit such a heinous crime? Evidence was tampered with, and destruction occurred, as noted in the CBI chargesheet. For whom was this done? To protect Sanjay Roy? How can we believe this? We still believe there are more culprits involved in this case, and they are walking free. So, please arrest them all and bring them to justice. Our fight will continue because this is not just one person; justice hasn’t been served yet, this is just the first step.”
The gruesome crime that came to the fore on August 9 last year, triggered widespread protests in Kolkata and the rest of the state, with people hitting the streets for months after the incident.
The parents of the victim, who initially accused the West Bengal police of trying to hush-up the crime had, over the past few weeks, expressed a lack of faith in the investigation by the CBI.
The Trinamool Congress expressed satisfaction at the verdict, pointing out that Sanjoy Roy had been identified and arrested by the Kolkata Police within 48 hours of the crime. “The CBI, which took over the investigation on the orders of the High Court, could not unearth any other evidence. This proves that the Kolkata Police had done everything right,” said Kunal Ghosh, the Trinamool Congress spokesperson.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, continued to point fingers at the “shoddy probe”.
State BJP chief and Union Minister Sukanto Majumdar alleged that the evidence was “tampered with” by the Kolkata Police, upon which the CBI investigated the case. He also claimed that the victim might have known something that would have “caused problems” for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the state’s Health Minister.