There is a wave of public anger over the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital rape-murder verdict. The accused, Sanjoy Roy, was sentenced to imprisonment till death and fined Rs 50,000 for brutalising and throttling to death a trainee doctor in the Kolkata hospital.
When the CBI took over the case, it was widely expected that Roy would be handed the death penalty. But according to the local sessions court judge, the crime did not fall in the “rarest of rare” category. The victim’s disappointed parents and West Bengal government are likely to appeal in a higher court.
The rape-murder of the doctor, who was asleep when she was attacked last August, had triggered outrage across the nation, with protests by citizens and strikes by doctors to demand better security and working conditions, especially for women. The verdict has left people dissatisfied over what defines a ‘rarest of rare’ crime and who draws the line.
According to the postmortem report, the victim suffered 25 injuries including lacerations, bruises and bites and haemorrhaged lungs before being smothered to death. The Nirbhaya and Aruna Shanbaug rapes had also riled the nation - while four rapists were hanged in the Delhi case, Aruna’s killer spent only seven years in jail.
Rape is a heinous crime that has been trivialised by a patriarchal system which places the onus on the woman and courts that treat such cases with less severity than deserved.
The legal system is dogged by botched investigations and low conviction rates, as happened, for example, in the Hathras case.
In 2023, sessions courts nationwide delivered 120 death sentences, of which 53 percent were for sexual offences. According to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 18 crimes are eligible for death penalty, up from 12 under the earlier penal code.
What we need is a mindset change. Rape is a violation of the body and the mind, and leaves the victim in severe trauma. The public is not inclined to show compassion for the perpetrator, whom judges suggest be given a chance to reform.
A rape-murder victim’s shattered family, too, needs to be considered. As a society, we cannot exact revenge. But it is only tougher and swifter punishments including execution that can put the fear of the law in the minds of criminals. In such cases of extreme brutality, deterrence should be preferred to reformation.