Sitting near the door to her home in Sambhunath Pandit Lane, some 6 km from the Sealdah court, Malati Roy had been waiting for the verdict in the R G Kar Hospital rape-murder case in which her son Sanjoy Roy was the accused.

Told that he had been found guilty by the court, Malati said, “I have three daughters, I understand their (the victim’s parents) pain. … Let him get any punishment he deserves. Even if the court says hang him, I will accept it.”

Roy’s sister Sabita, who lives down the lane, said, “What my brother has done is something unthinkable and horrific. My heart breaks saying this but he should get the ultimate punishment if he has done it. The victim was a woman like me, and a doctor.”

Roy’s mother and sister did not visit him while he was in custody during the trial.

Kolkata Police arrested Roy on August 10, a day after the rape and murder of the junior doctor.

He was arrested from the barracks of a Kolkata armed police battalion – a former boxer, he became a civic volunteer in 2019.

After the CBI took over the case, Roy was questioned by the agency and later sent to judicial custody.

Since the day Roy, was arrested, life has not been the same for his mother and his sister who lives about a minutes walk on the same lane.

“However I believe he cannot have done it alone. They say he was even drunk,” said Sabita who is married to a school teacher.

“Since the day my brother was arrested. Didn’t step out of home. People are talking so much bad things about our family in my neighbourhood. Every Saturday I used to go to a local temple. I have stopped that too,” added Sabita near her home in the same lane about a min walk away.

“Since the day my brother got arrested I had to hear so much even from my in laws,” said Sabita.

Sanjay has two elder sister and younger sister who all are married and live with their husbands. Another sister died years back.

Once married, Sanjay’s wife left him with complaints of domestic violence and later died of illness. Sanjay used to live with his mother, who are his arrest is being financially supported by his sisters.