Letdown for Abhaya
LESS than six months after a doctor’s horrifying rape-murder at a state-run hospital in Kolkata sparked a nationwide outrage, a district and sessions court has sentenced convict Sanjoy Roy to life imprisonment until death. Justifying his decision to reject the CBI’s demand for the death penalty, the judge has observed that the crime did not fall in the “rarest of the rare” category. The verdict has been given the thumbs-down not only by the victim’s parents but also by the ruling Trinamool Congress and its main political rival in West Bengal, the BJP. It’s obvious that the last word on this case has not yet been said or written.
Perhaps no other crime has evoked so much anger and revulsion across the country since the Nirbhaya gangrape-murder of December 2012. A doctor duty-bound to save the life of every patient entrusted to her care was sexually assaulted and killed; it was undoubtedly an act of bone-chilling brutality. Circumstantial evidence seems to have proved Roy’s guilt beyond any doubt. Thus, it’s baffling that the Abhaya case was not regarded as the “rarest of the rare”. The controversial judgment has left several questions unanswered: Was this really a ‘lone wolf’ incident? If not, who were the convict’s accomplices and what was their role in the crime? Has the CBI thoroughly probed all aspects of the case? And what about the lapses on the part of the hospital authorities?
Even as the CBI must get to the bottom of the matter, the unsavoury political slanging match should be avoided. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that had the case been handled by the Kolkata Police, the death penalty would have been a certainty. The BJP, in its turn, has demanded an investigation into the alleged role of then Kolkata Commissioner and the CM in the destruction of vital evidence. This is an unfortunate turn of events. One thing is clear: Abhaya deserves nothing less than complete justice. This must be ensured for the sake of every daughter of the nation.
