A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court rejected the West Bengal government’s plea for the death penalty for Sanjay Roy, the sole convict in the R.G. Kar rape and murder case, on Friday morning.

However, a similar petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), also seeking the death penalty for Roy, has been accepted by the Division Bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi.

The Division Bench also observed that, as the investigating agency in the rape and murder case, only the CBI reserves the right to file a petition in the matter. The state government does not have any locus standi to file such a petition.

The hearing on the admissibility of the petitions by both the CBI and the state government concluded on January 27. The Division Bench reserved its judgment on that day.

Last month, a special court in Kolkata sentenced Roy to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a female junior doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in August of the previous year.

The judge of the special court, Anirban Das, observed that since the crime could not be considered as the “rarest of the rare,” the sole convict was sentenced to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.

Subsequently, both the West Bengal government and the CBI approached the court, challenging the special court’s order and seeking the death penalty for Roy.

The CBI, at the same time, challenged the locus standi of the state government in making such an appeal.

The parents of the victim have already stated that they do not want the death penalty for Roy, as they believe that the former civic volunteer attached to the Kolkata Police was not the sole culprit in the heinous rape and murder of their daughter.

The victim’s parents have also faced unprecedented verbal attacks from a section of the ruling Trinamool Congress leadership for their stance against the death penalty for the sole convict.

-IANS