When there is life, there’s hope of truth coming out: Convict’s family
Times of India | 21 January 2025
Kolkata: Moments after a city sessions court judge turned down CBI's appeal for capital punishment and sentenced RG Kar rape-murder accused Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment on Monday, his sister said there was still hope that the actual truth would be unearthed.
"If he was hanged, the case would be over. But with him being alive while serving his punishment, there is scope for police and the judiciary to continue with the investigation and find out other persons who may have been involved in this case along with him," Roy's sister told TOI.
The sister, who lives in the same Sambhunath Pandit Street neighbourhood as Roy, was at a hospital for a family emergency but kept her eyes on her mobile phone, checking live news updates about her brother.
"I was not that close to my brother anymore. I would not like to react to the judgment. The judge has done what he felt was right. All I want to say is that the case was about workplace safety. But all the cops have managed to do so far is arrest my brother. The way the case has progressed, it appears there are more culprits. If only my brother is punished and the rest go scot-free, it is not justice. But now that he hasn't been hanged, the authorities should continue with the quest to find the other culprits. Till that day, no woman is safe at a workplace," she said.
Roy's mother, who confined herself to her one-room home at 55/B SNP Street throughout the day, also spoke in support of the judgment from behind the closed door. "Why will he be hanged? The judge has made the right decision. I don't know what may have happened. Police and the judiciary know that, and they have taken a decision. I have nothing else to say," said Roy's mother, speaking slowly to herself from behind the closed wooden door.
The woman in her 70s kept the door shut throughout the day. Even when the judge was reading out the sentence, she didn't come out to speak to a large group of reporters gathered outside her home for a reaction. It was only after a majority of them left that she came out for a while to take back the clothes she had put out to dry. Seeing cameras flashing at her, she quickly went inside and locked herself in again.
When asked about her reaction to the fact that the judge asked Sanjay if he was in touch with his mother shortly before disallowing the capital punishment, she stayed silent for a while before saying she had nothing to say about it.
"I have nothing else to share or react to. I neither have grievances nor gratitude towards the police for whatever they have done. I can only curse my luck for my misfortunes. I accept whatever is there in our fate," she said from behind the closed door, unwilling to come out and speak to the reporters.
Since morning, the neighbourhood opposite Bangur Institute of Neurosciences was buzzing with people — reporters, curious onlookers and cops in plainclothes — as they waited in anticipation for the much-awaited sentencing. Once he was sentenced to life imprisonment, even a section of neighbours said they welcomed the judgment.
"I knew Sanjay. He was an addict, but I am unsure if he could have done such a heinous act all by himself. I am happy that he was not hanged. I have never been in support of capital punishment. If he was hanged, his mother would have been devastated," said Krishna Aditya, who lives two blocks away.