Kolkata, Jan 20 (IANS) As a special court in Kolkata on Monday sentenced Sanjay Roy -- the sole accused in the rape and murder case of a woman doctor -- to life imprisonment, his lawyer proposed challenging the order in the Calcutta High Court.

The woman doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital was raped and murdered within the hospital premises in August last year.

Incidentally, the statement by the convict’s counsel Sejuti Chakraborty in the matter was quite different from the claim made by the elder sister of Roy on January 18, that the family would accept whatever sentence was granted to him and would not approach the higher legal forum against it.

On Saturday, immediately after the special court convicted Roy for the crime of rape and murder, his elder sister claimed that since the law had found her brother guilty he would be punished accordingly.

“We apologise to the family members of the victim. The law has found my brother guilty and he will be punished accordingly. I have nothing else to say. The administration will do what is right. What we desire really does not matter,” the victim’s elder sister stated on Saturday.

In fact, the convict’s mother throughout Monday had kept herself incommunicado within the locked doors of their residence in South Kolkata.

However, contrary to the claims of the convict’s sister on this count, his counsel Sejuti Chakraborty stated that since any convict has the right to appeal a verdict, she would also move the higher court challenging the special court’s order.

“We might take some time to move in the matter. But I think that in reality Sanjay is a victim. So we will be moving the higher court to ensure his release,” Chakraborty said on Monday afternoon after the sentence was pronounced.

However, the conflicting claims of the victim’s counsel and his elder sister have raised the question of who would be sponsoring the legal expenditure for approaching a higher court in the case.

--IANS

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