Mamata govt goofed up, needn’t hurry now, says RG Kar victim’s father
Father of the slain junior doctor says had the TMC government prevented the alleged tampering of evidence, the CBI would have been able to provide proper proof
Soon after the West Bengal government on Tuesday (January 21) moved the Calcutta High Court seeking death penalty for the convict in the RG Kar rape-murder case, the victim’s father lashed out at the Mamata Banerjee administration, accusing it of tampering with evidence in the first place.
A Sealdah court on Monday sentenced Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment until death after he was convicted of raping and murdering the on-duty doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, rejecting demands for the death penalty saying it was not a "rarest of the rare" crime.
‘Mamata doesn’t have to hurry’
The father of the deceased junior doctor said his family will decide the next course of action after going through the copy of the order given by the Sealdah court while asserting that there was no need for the government to take hurried decisions.
Also read: RG Kar case: Roy claims he was framed; 'rarest of rare' says CBI seeking death penalty
“Let us get the order copy tomorrow, we will go through it and then decide what we want to do. She (Banerjee) does not have to do anything in a hurried manner. Whatever the chief minister has done till date, she should not do any further,” Indian Express quoted him as saying.
CM only tampered with evidence: Victim’s father
The victim’s father also alleged that convict Sanjay Roy was awarded life imprisonment and not death only because the Crime Bureau of Investigation (CBI) could not “provide proper proof.”
“She can say a lot of things but she only tampered with evidence…the then CP and others, they had tampered with it. Could she not see all that from the beginning?” he said.
Bengal govt moves Calcutta HC
The West Bengal government on Tuesday moved the Calcutta High Court to file an appeal seeking death penalty for Roy and secured the court’s necessary permission.
The state government's move comes in less than 24 hours after Chief Mamata Banerjee announced her intent to challenge before a higher court the order of Sealdah court that sentenced Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment until death in the case.
Also read: RG Kar rape-murder | Sanjay Roy gets life imprisonment; 'not rarest of rare': judge
Advocate General Kishor Datta moved a division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi on Tuesday morning, seeking the court's permission to file the appeal challenging the order passed by Additional District and Sessions Judge in Sealdah, Anirban Das, on Monday.
"The government has moved the high court and secured the court's leave to file the appeal," an official said.
High court sources maintained that the judicial process pertaining to the case could start this week itself if the due process of filing the appeal was completed by the end of the day on Tuesday.
Court’s ‘eye for an eye’ reference
While sentencing Roy to life imprisonment, the Sealdah court also ordered him to pay a Rs 50,000 fine and directed the state government to pay compensation of Rs 17 lakh to the family of the deceased doctor.
Holding that "in the realm of modern justice, we must rise above the primitive instinct of an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth or nail for a nail or a life for a life", Das awarded rigorous imprisonment to Roy, the sole convict in the case, for the remainder of his natural life.
Also read: Not satisfied, will move HC against verdict: Mamata on life term to RG Kar case convict
The judge also stated in his order that “our duty is not to match brutality with brutality, but to elevate humanity through wisdom, compassion and a deeper understanding of justice. The measure of a civilised society lies not in its ability to exact revenge, but in its capacity to reform, rehabilitate and ultimately to heal.” Maintaining that the case doesn’t meet the stringent criteria drawn from established guidelines of previous Apex Court judgments for imposing death penalty, the trial court stopped short of classifying the crime as "rarest of the rare".
Mamata’s dissatisfaction
Expressing dissatisfaction with the Sealdah court’s verdict, the chief minister had on Monday asserted that had the case been handled by the Kolkata Police, the death penalty would have been ensured.
"All of us have demanded the death sentence, but the court has given a life term until death…The case was forcibly taken from us. Had it been with the (Kolkata) police, we would have ensured that he was served a death sentence," she told reporters.
Also read: Kerala: Greeshma's death sentence sparks debate on human rights and true justice
Later, posting on her X handle where she sounded more critical, Banerjee informed that the state government would challenge the Sealdah court verdict and move the Calcutta High Court.