January 20, 2025, Kolkata, India — The Sealdah Court in Kolkata convicts the former civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police, Sanjay Roy, to life imprisonment for the heinous crime of raping and murdering a 31-year-old trainee doctor at state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospitals. The murder caused a nationwide outcry, with women’s safety in public institutions raised.
Crime and investigation
On the morning of August 9, 2024, the dead body of the intern medical doctor was found in the seminar room of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. Autopsy reports confirmed that she had been raped and strangled to death. The brutality of the crime triggered widespread protests, with the medical community and the general public demanding justice and enhanced safety measures in government hospitals.
Sanjay Roy was arrested on August 10, 2024, already having been in the limelight in the preliminary investigation. The Kolkata Police led the investigation until later accusations of negligence brought on by public pressure resulted in the case being transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 13, 2024, by the Calcutta High Court.
The CBI has conducted a thorough, long-lasting investigation, compiling a veritable mountain of forensic and circumstantial evidence implicating Roy as the perpetrator of the crime.
Trial and conviction
The trial commenced on November 11, 2024, proceeding very swiftly by January 9, 2025. The court examined 51 witnesses out of the 128 that were initially listed in its list.
Judge Anirban Das found Sanjay Roy guilty under Sections 64 (rape), 66 (causing death or resulting in a persistent vegetative state of the victim), and 103(1) (murder) of the Bharat Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on January 18, 2025.
These sections carry a minimum mandatory life sentence but may be extended to a sentence of death in very exceptional circumstances.
Sentencing and reactions
On January 20, 2025, Judge Das sentenced Roy to life imprisonment, ordering that he would serve the rest of his natural life behind bars.
Also, Roy was imposed with a fine of ₹50,000 by the court, while the West Bengal government was instructed to provide ₹1,700,000 as compensation—₹1 lakh for the death and ₹700,000 for the rape committed while on official duty.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has been agitating for capital punishment under the ‘rarest of the rare’ doctrine. Judge Das, however, felt the case did not fit into this doctrine and went instead for life imprisonment.
Mixed feelings for the family of the victim. The father accepted the sentence, but he was emphatic about the need for investigations to find the rest involved. Whereas the mother expressed her dissatisfaction with the CBI’s work, adding–“It’s just one person who is innocent of being part of this crime. But the CBI has failed to arrest the rest.”
Wider Ramifications
The incident rekindled a debate about women’s safety in public spaces, particularly within the medical profession. Within this part of the world less than one can take the idea in the slightest obscene-to embrace what happened with a medical employee unto its own confines raised systemic concerns about systemic security issues related to women’s protection.
In the aftermath of the incident, protesting and general strikes by doctors throughout India demanding protection and fast justice ensued.
The government has been expected to be in charge of keeping its employees safe, especially those who work in critical areas such as health. This ruling is likely to shed light on other similar cases that would further the notion of accountability of institutions of the state with respect to the protection of their personnel.
The judgment of Sanjay Roy life imprisonment is another milestone on the road to justice of the victim and her family in its entirety; in fact, the case gives us another reminder of the hazardous status of women’s safety in India.
