Five months after the rape and murder of a young doctor at the state-run R G Kar Hospital in Kolkata shook the city and sparked protests across the country, a Kolkata court Saturday declared prime accused Sanjoy Roy guilty of the offence.
The quantum of sentence will be pronounced Monday by Additional District and Sessions Judge Anirban Das of the Sealdah court.
The body of the on-duty doctor, who had been raped and killed, was found on the hospital premises on August 9.
Prime accused Roy, who was arrested a day after the incident, had been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 64 (rape), 66 (punishment for causing death or resulting in a persistent vegetative state) and 103 (punishment for murder).
Pronouncing the verdict in open court, judge Das told Roy that the accusation against him was that on August 9 “you entered RG Kar and you attacked the doctor and she died and (you) also sexually assaulted her”. He said BNS sections 64, 66 and 103 (1) had been invoked.
“The crime is proved and so you are found guilty,” judge Das said, detailing the punishment under the invoked sections. “The way you throttled the victim, you can be given death or life imprisonment. The quantum will be given on Monday. My observation is based on the evidence given by the CBI. You are being sent to jail today.”
Following the verdict, Roy was whisked away from the courtroom.
Judge Das informed lawyers of all parties that the quantum of punishment would be pronounced Monday.
He said he had based his observations on several points – who is the accused, where was the accused staying, the profile of the victim, the duty hours of the victim, where was the victim last seen alive, where and when was the victim found and by whom, the cause of death, time of death and whether there was any evidence of sexual assault, whether it was carried out by one person or by a group of people, place of occurrence and the mobile tower location of the accused.
Outside the courtroom, CBI counsel Partho Sarathi Dutta told the media: “We had asked for maximum punishment and that is what the court has given. We had accused Sanjoy Roy under three (BNS) sections and today the court found him guilty on all the three charges.”
The victim’s father said, “I had faith in this court and this court has kept it. We are happy that we are getting the reply to our questions.”
“This is just the first step towards justice. I am grateful to the court. But I have lost my daughter. She will not come back. Only I know what I have lost,” he said.
The victim’s mother said, “We should not lose patience, the investigation is not over. We have to keep the fight on for justice.”
The CBI took over the case on August 13 and charges against the accused were framed on December 4. The agency recorded statements of more than 120 witnesses.
During the 66-day in-camera trial, the CBI counsel relied heavily on biological evidence – DNA samples, viscera and toxicology reports – apart from a layered voice analysis (LVA) to establish Roy as the perpetrator of the crime.
It said saliva swab samples and DNA samples on the victim’s body had matched with that of Roy. The agency claimed the victim had put up a struggle and Roy had five blunt force injuries.
The CBI also arrested Tala police station officer-in-charge Abhijit Mandal and the medical college and hospital’s former principal Sandip Ghosh. Both were arrested for alleged destruction of evidence and “hushing up” the case.
In December 2024, the two men were granted bail by the Sealdah court because the CBI failed to file a chargesheet against them even 90 days after their arrest. Ghosh remains in judicial custody in another case related to alleged financial irregularities at the medical college.