Civic police volunteer found guilty of Kolkata doctor’s rape, murder

A Kolkata court on Saturday held civic police volunteer Sanjay Roy guilty of raping and murdering a junior doctor at the city’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August, reported Live Law.

Roy’s sentence will be pronounced on Monday.

Civic volunteers are contractual workers engaged by the police for duties that may not require police personnel, like traffic management.

The 31-year-old trainee doctor was found dead on the state-run hospital’s premises on August 9. The incident sparked protests across the country.

For several weeks, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front led protests demanding the resignation of senior officials and an end to the “threat culture” in West Bengal’s medical centres.

On Saturday, Judge Anirban Das of the Additional District and Sessions Court in Sealdah said that the maximum possible sentence for Roy would be the death penalty. The minimum sentence would be life imprisonment.

At the hearing, Roy told the court that he was not involved in the incident and claimed that he was innocent, Live Law reported.

The court had held a daily trial after a chargesheet was filed in the matter on October 7.

Roy was arrested by the Kolkata Police a few days after the incident, but the Calcutta High Court had ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the matter.

The Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the case amid public outrage.

After the incident,...

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