A court in India has sentenced a police volunteer to life in prison for the rape and murder of a trainee doctor who was attacked while on duty in Kolkata last August – a crime which sparked widespread protests across the country.
The trial, which began in November and was held in closed court, was quickly postponed due to the uprising, with many people taking to the streets to vent their anger. expressed the continued violence against women in India, as well as the lack of security measures to keep female doctors safe.
At Monday's sentencing hearing in India's eastern state of West Bengal, Judge Anirban Das said that while it was a heinous crime, it was not the “most unusual” case that shocked society. society as a whole. Therefore, the death penalty was not appropriate for Sanjay Roy.
“You will be in prison until the last day of your life,” said Das, as he sentenced Roy for both rape and murder.
Before the sentence came down, Roy pleaded in front of the court not to receive the death sentence, saying again that he was innocent and that he believed he was being arrested.
'Justice still awaits'
Roy, 33, was working informally as a police volunteer at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the state-run teaching hospital where the victim's body was found in the hall of a speak on August 9. The 31-year-old doctor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, reportedly went to the hall to rest after a 36-hour shift.
Her body was half-naked and badly injured, with an autopsy finding she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Roy was arrested the day after the victim was found and formally charged last October, with federal investigators later revealing that he was arrested after for him to be caught on CCTV footage entering the conference hall.
After the guilty verdict was confirmed on Saturday, but with the punishment still pending, the victim's mother told reporters that she believed Roy did not act alone but “someone went yet another arrest. So justice was not delivered.
On Monday, the doctor's parents broke down in tears inside the courtroom, saying they were disappointed that their hope for a death sentence had been dashed.
“We are shocked by the decision,” her father told Agence France-Presse. “We will continue our fight… come what may, we will fight for justice.”
A crowd of protesters also gathered outside the court on Monday to express their displeasure with the sentence.
The victim's parents had earlier alleged that the West Bengal police tried to kill him delaying the investigation and tampering with evidence.
The court also awarded 1,700,000 rupees (about $28,500 Cdn) as compensation to the family, even though the victim's parents told the court they did not want any money. “I just want justice for our daughter – nothing else,” the father said.
The case was initially investigated by police in Kolkata but was handed over to federal investigators after state officials were accused of ill-treatment.
“I am… saddened, dismayed and very emotional,” said Dr. Sayantani Ghosh Hazra, a resident at Kolkata's KPC Medical College and Hospital, in response to Monday's sentence.
“Justice is still waiting,” she said, referring to her belief that more people were involved in the crime.
Hazra was heavily involved in the demonstrations after the rape and murder, even fasting in protest for 17 days.
“Everyone is hungry for justice,” she said, until a full account of what happened that night can be found.
Safety issues without leaving
Months after the attack, the RG Kar hospital in Kolkata is still covered in posters and graffiti denouncing the rape and what many see as a reluctance on the part of authorities to investigate the crime as a whole.
“We feel like we've lost our sister,” Dr. Asfakulla Naiya, a resident at the same hospital as the victim, told CBC News in an interview before the sentence came down. He confirmed the shock that the attack took place in a conference hall where doctors are taught to “save animals, not take lives.”
Naiya wanted Roy's sentence to be an example and “strikes fear” in potential rapists so they would think “a thousand times” before attacking a woman.
The brutal rape and murder sparked national rallies and doctors' strikes for weeks, with thousands of women demanding justice and pushing back against victim blaming in one demonstration called Reclaim the Night.
Rimjhim Sinha, one of the organizers of that protest and subsequent gatherings, said that Monday's sentence should be accompanied by real social change to make any difference.
“Even capital punishment does not really ensure eradication of rape culture in our society, no matter how many cases where the perpetrators have been executed by hanging,” Sinha said. , an activist and researcher focused on women's rights in India.
Thousands rallied outside a hospital in Kolkata, India, demanding justice for a young doctor-in-training who was raped and murdered while on break from a long shift last month .
“Women are not even considered human,” she said. “We think that we are property, or that we are something that someone should keep as a trophy.”
Sinha said little has changed culturally in India since the 2012 gang-rape and killing of a 23-year-old student on a bus in Delhi shocked the country and sparked mass protests. The case resulted in tougher penalties for rape and courts moving quickly to deal with assault charges.
Others, like 22-year-old medical student Debasmita Das, are skeptical that the life sentence handed down will lead to more adequate security measures for female healthcare workers. India's Supreme Court set up a national task force after the attack to strengthen security in government hospitals.
“How can a murder happen inside the hospital (while the victim was) on duty?” Das told CBC News.
“I'll be doing my internship in three years. How can I be safe?”
