The rapist and murderer of an Indian doctor was sentenced to life in prison Monday, a crime that sparked nationwide protests and widespread hospital strikes last year.
Her weeping family had called for the convicted killer to be hanged and said they were “shocked” at the sentence, for a case that highlighted the chronic issue of violence against women in the world’s most populous country.
But Judge Anirban Das said the case did not deserve the death penalty as it was not “the rarest of the rare cases”, and ordered that Sanjoy Roy must spend his life behind bars.
The discovery of the 31-year-old doctor’s bloodied body at a government hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata in August 2024 sparked outrage.
Roy, 33, the lone accused in the case, was arrested a day after the victim’s body was discovered.
The murder led to demands by doctors at government hospitals for additional security, with thousands of citizens in Kolkata and elsewhere in India joining doctors’ protests in solidarity.
India’s Supreme Court last year ordered a national task force to examine how to bolster security for healthcare workers, saying the brutality of the killing had “shocked the conscience of the nation”.
The trial of Roy, who pleaded not guilty and repeatedly insisted on his innocence was fast-tracked through India’s normally glacial legal system.
The victim’s mother, who was seated close to Roy when he was convicted on Saturday, has said the family wanted him to be hanged.
“We are shocked by the verdict”, the victim’s father told AFP, tears running down his face.
“We will continue our fight, and won’t let investigations stop… Come what may, we will fight for justice.”
Family members cannot be identified in keeping with Indian law around the reporting of sexual violence cases.
The gruesome nature of the attack drew comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus, which also sparked weeks of nationwide protests.
India imposes the death penalty, although it is rarely carried out in practice.
The last executions carried out in India were in March 2020 — of four men convicted of the 2012 rape and murder on the Delhi bus.
