KOLKATA: CBI filed Wednesday an appeal in Calcutta high court seeking death penalty for Sanjay Roy, convicted and sentenced Monday to life imprisonment for raping and murdering a 31-year-old resident doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Aug 9 last year.
The appeal, submitted before a division bench, also challenges the maintainability of a similar plea filed by Bengal govt Tuesday. The state had sought capital punishment for Roy after CM Mamata Banerjee expressed dissatisfaction with sessions court’s decision to spare Roy the gallows. The matter has been listed for hearing on Jan 27.
CBI counsel Rajdeep Majumder argued that the state was not authorised to file appeals in cases investigated by central agencies, asserting that Union govt is the only competent authority to do so.
Bengal advocate general Kishore Datta countered that the case was initially investigated by Kolkata police before being handed over to CBI, making the state’s appeal admissible.
The trial court’s 172-page judgment indicates that CBI’s probe into the case is still ongoing. Judge Anirban Das said in his order: “In this case, a chargesheet was submitted only for the offence of rape and murder of the victim, and the actual offender was placed before this court for trial. It does not mean that the entire investigation process came to an end.”
