Kolkata: A Kolkata sessions court Saturday pronounced Kolkata Police civic volunteer Sanjay Roy guilty of the rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor who was found murdered at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital last August.
Additional district and sessions judge Anirban Das pronounced the verdict in the presence of sole accused Sanjay Roy. The quantum of punishment is set to be pronounced Monday.
“There is a complaint against the accused that he went to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and went to the seminar room, assaulted and murdered the lady doctor taking rest there,” the court said. Roy has been convicted under sections 64, 66, 103(1), of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) based on forensic evidence and DNA match.
The judge told Roy that the minimum punishment for the crimes of which he has been found guilty is life imprisonment and the maximum is the death penalty.
Roy, however, claimed he was being framed. “There’s a rudraksh mala on my neck, had I committed the crime, it would have broken,” he told a packed courtroom. The judge, while sending him to judicial custody, said he would be heard at 12.30 pm Monday.
Meanwhile, victim’s father, with folded hands, tears rolling down his cheeks, thanked the judge for the verdict.
The body of the postgraduate trainee doctor with severe injury marks was found in the seminar room of the state-run hospital on 9 August 2024.
The postmortem report indicated she was inflicted with 16 external and 9 internal injuries. It also pointed towards possible “sexual assault”. The medical officers said that death was caused due to the “effects of manual strangulation associated with smothering”.
A day after the body was found, based on a broken Bluetooth headphone found at the crime scene and CCTV footage, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Kolkata Police arrested Roy in connection with the case.
The arrest, however, failed to quell public anger, and unhappy with the police investigation, the parents of the victim moved the Calcutta High Court. The court took note of the matter on 13 August and transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), citing significant lapses in Kolkata Police’s investigation. Within days, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the incident, setting up a task force to frame guidelines for the safety and security of doctors at public hospitals. It also monitored the CBI probe.
The CBI formally filed charges against Roy in November. He was accused of rape and murder under corresponding sections of the BNS. The in-camera trial in the case began on 12 November at Sealdah court. The final hearing in the case concluded last week.
Parents of the victim continue to allege that other people were also involved in the crime and changed their counsel twice over the course of the trial. However, Roy remained the sole accused and the CBI ruled out the possibility of gangrape as alleged by the parents.
Earlier in the day, the victim’s father told news agency ANI, “Not just one, but a DNA report shows the presence of four boys and one girl. We will feel some relief when the accused are punished. Until we get justice, we will keep knocking on the doors of the court and will also seek the support of the people of the country.”
The father also alleged that the CBI “has done nothing in the matter”.
In the aftermath of the rape and murder, the country was engulfed in protests as doctors, civil society activists, political leaders, and citizens took to the streets, demanding justice.
It sparked debate over the safety of women and doctors. Agitating doctors, backed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), demanded that the Centre reconsider a 2019 draft bill on protecting healthcare workers that was junked following objections from home ministry.
On 19 August, noting that almost all states have laws in place catering to the demand for security, the Centre ruled out bringing in a ‘Central Protection Act’. Instead, the health ministry issued an order to increase security by 25 percent in all central government medical hospitals. It also formed a panel to look into strengthening the security and safety of healthcare personnel at workplaces after extensive consultations with stakeholders.
Financial fraud, destruction of evidence
On 15 September, former principal of the hospital Dr Sandip Ghosh and Kolkata Police officer-in-charge Abhijit Mondal, were charged with destruction of evidence.
While Mondal was also arrested for compromising the scene of the crime and the delay in lodging an FIR, Ghosh was arrested earlier in a financial fraud case.
In the days following the incident, police also questioned Ghosh a number of times including about his handling of the matter as well as authorising renovation of rooms adjacent to the seminar hall after the body was discovered.
Ghosh had resigned from his post two days after the incident. The parents of the victim accused him, as well as Mondal, of attempting to hush up the case and divert the probe.
On 2 September, in a parallel investigation into unrelated financial fraud at the hospital during Ghosh’s tenure, CBI arrested Ghosh after 17 days of questioning and two polygraph tests for “diversion of funds” and receiving “kickbacks” on account of such diversions.
A day later, it also arrested Ma Tara Traders vendor Biplab Singha, Suman Hazra, who sold recycled medicines to RG Kar, and Afsar Ali Khan, the former principal’s bodyguard, and said they were part of a “nexus” and “by way of illegal means caused wrongful loss to the government and corresponding wrongful gain to himself [Ghosh] and other accused”.
But in December, the CBI faced a setback after both Ghosh and Mondal were granted bail on account of a delay by the agency in filing the chargesheet.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
Also Read: How Mamata Banerjee weathered RG Kar storm to blow aside Opposition in Bengal assembly bypolls