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 -- the BJP demanded a probe against West Bengal Chief Minister and the former Kolkata Police Commissioner.

Soon after the verdict by a court in the high-profile rape and murder case of a junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital within the hospital premises in August last year, the BJP’s Information Technology Cell chief and the party’s Central Observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya demanded a probe against Mamata Banerjee and Vineet Kumar Goyal in the matter.

Soon after the verdict was pronounced, Malviya issued a statement stating that the verdict should be appealed against.

According to him, “life imprisonment” and a financial penalty against Roy is nothing but “a travesty of justice”.

“The verdict must be appealed. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee must stop shielding the criminal. Agencies also need to investigate the role of the then Kolkata Police Commissioner and the Chief Minister in the destruction of evidence. Justice must not only be done but must also be seen to be done,” Malviya said in his statement.

BJP’s state president in West Bengal and Union Minister of state Sukanta Majumdar said that the question still remains on the kind of “tampering with the evidence” which had happened in the five days when the Kolkata Police was in charge of the investigation before the matter was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

“The people of West Bengal in general are unhappy over the quantum of sentence. The CBI should immediately challenge Monday’s verdict at Calcutta High Court and at the same time track the main masterminds behind the crime,” Majumdar said.

Rajendra Gupta, a member of the Sealdah Court's Bar Association in Kolkata, said that the report given by the CBI was not an accurate one.

“It is a report to save everyone. The main culprit in this incident has not been caught, it is a set-up. The CBI has given this report under someone's influence.” Gupta told IANS.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day Mamata Banerjee expressed displeasure and dissatisfaction over the quantum of sentence to Roy.

"We demanded 'death penalty' for the convict. I don’t know how… had the case been in our hands (state police or Kolkata Police), the death sentence would have been pronounced much earlier,” Mamata Banerjee told mediapersons just after the sentence was pronounced by the special court.