Fri Feb 07 06:00:57 UTC 2025: ## Calcutta High Court Upholds Life Imprisonment for RG Kar Hospital Rape-Murder Convict
**Kolkata, February 7, 2025** – The Calcutta High Court today rejected the West Bengal government’s appeal for the death penalty for Sanjay Roy, the sole convict in the horrific rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. While dismissing the state’s appeal, the court accepted the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) similar appeal, allowing the agency to challenge the life sentence awarded by the trial court.
The division bench, comprising Justices Debangsu Basak and Md Sabbar Rashidi, reasoned that since the CBI conducted the investigation and prosecution, its appeal held precedence. Both the state government and the CBI had sought the death penalty for Roy, who was convicted in January 2025 for the August 9, 2024 crime. The trial court had sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The victim, an on-duty doctor, was raped and murdered in the hospital’s seminar room. Roy was arrested the following day, and the case was subsequently transferred to the CBI. The parents of both the victim and the convict were represented in court. The High Court’s decision concludes a highly publicized case that sparked widespread outrage.
First Piper 