Kolkata, West Bengal: Following the court ruling of the RG Kar rape and murder case, social media has been discussing the verdict, wondering what took the court back from delivering the death penalty to the culprit. The Kolkata trial court had on Monday convicted civic volunteer Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment and slammed the Kolkata police and the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital for their conduct regarding the crime investigation.

The judge observed that the police treated the case in a shockingly indifferent manner. In the judgement, the Court noted that the evidence of one SI of police is an eye opener that police stations are treating the cases in a very indifferent manner. “It shows how they have entertained the issue even when the case became a sensitive one… It was his evidence that he was instructed to do so, but he did not mention the names of anyone by whom he was instructed to do such an illegal act,” the court said.

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The court pointed out that in the unnatural death register maintained by the police station, a case number was kept blank and only filled up much later, in violation of the rules.

The court also accused Assistant Sub-Inspector Anup Dutta of pampering the accused and went on to fault Inspector Rupali Mukherjee for inexplicably leaving the mobile phone of the accused unattended.

“Her (Inspector Mukherjee’s) action of taking the mobile from the accused on 09.08.2024 and keeping it at Tala PS unattended is a very curious one,“ the Court observed, while acknowledging that there was no evidence to indicate that the phone was tampered with.

While delivering the verdict, though the court noted the nature of crime as “particularly heinous, characterized by its brutality and the vulnerability of the victim,” it cited he Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab judgment in 1980 which held that “life imprisonment is the rule and death sentence an exception. Court pointed out that the Indian judicial system has a stringent criteria for imposing the death penalty, reserving it for cases that are “exceptionally heinous and shock the collective conscience of society.

“When considering the imposition of capital punishment, courts must grapple with a complex web of legal, moral and societal considerations. The principle of proportionality is paramount – the punishment must fit the crime. In cases of extreme brutality and cruelty, where the offence shocks the conscience of society, the argument for the ultimate punishment gains strength. However, this must be balanced against the principles of reformative justice and the sanctity of human life,” the order said.

The order also noted that the convict Roy had said he was drunk when he entered the hospital premises, adding that there was no hostility between the victim and Roy as he attacked her “on sudden impulse” to “meet his lust”.

The court, citing precedents in law, stated that the motive is a psychological phenomenon, and mere fact that prosecution failed to translate that mental disposition of the accused into evidence, does not mean that no such mental condition existed in the mind of the assailant. “No proof can be expected in all cases as to how the mind of the accused worked in a particular situation but the same by itself is insufficient to lead to any inference adverse to the prosecution,” the court added.

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The court finally emphasised that the Commissioner of Police at Kolkata must act strictly against such illegal and indifferent acts by police officers of the Tala Police Station, adding that if the officers had taken proper initiatives in dealing with the case, the case would not have become as complicated as it did eventually.

On Monday, a woman from Kerala was awarded the death penalty for killing her boyfriend by lacing poison in juice after her family arranged a marriage with another person. The woman, Greeshma, planned the murder of her boyfriend with her mother and uncle. The issues had ignited widespread fury in the state. Notably, some have questioned the justice in the RG Kar case, noting its seriousness.

However, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that the state will approach the High Court against life sentence verdict of Roy, asserting that it wanted him death penalty. The chief minister also slammed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for its handling of the case, alleging it was “forcibly taken” from the Kolkata Police. The TMC leader stated that she has been demanding death sentence to the culprit since the beginning of the case.