After the parents of the victim in the RG Kar rape and murder case informed the Calcutta High Court through their counsel that they are not in favour of capital punishment for lone convict Sanjoy Roy, Trinamool Congress leaders have launched a series of attacks on them.
The parents’ counsel had also told the court that the CBI should submit the supplementary chargesheet and that others should also be arrested in the case, while the parents have also told mediapersons that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should resign.
TMC leader Kunal Ghosh told mediapersons, “Are they protecting convict Sanjoy Roy? Next, we will see that they are taking warm clothes or asking for nutritious meals for him at the correctional home.”
Meanwhile, TMC MLA Sovandeb Chatterjee said, “The parents, from the very beginning, are giving different statements at different times. I do not feel that they are giving their own opinion. I feel that the parents are being influenced by the CPI (M) and that party is using the parents for their agenda.”
Party MP Kalyan Banerjee said, “(The father’s) own daughter has been raped and murdered… No death sentence? They are doing very good politics, I am sorry to say,” while MP Saugata Roy said, “I do not want to give any importance to what they (the parents) are saying… We are sympathetic towards them as they have lost their child. They will not decide who will stay the Chief Minister.”
On Friday, the CBI moved the Calcutta High Court demanding the death penalty for convict Sanjoy Roy in the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the state-run RG Medical College and Hospital. The state government had also moved the court demanding capital punishment. The court reserved its order on this after a hearing on Monday.
On January 20, Additional Sessions Judge Anirban Das of Sealdah court had awarded Sanjoy Roy life imprisonment “until his last breath”.
Roy, a 35-year-old civic volunteer, was convicted under Sections 64 (punishment for rape), 66 (punishment for causing death or a persistent vegetative state to a woman), and 101 (1) (murder) in a ruling that came five months after the August 9 incident sparked outrage and triggered massive protests of doctors and citizens in West Bengal.