Kolkata, Jan 27 (IANS): Two parallel and crucial hearings are scheduled at a division bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Monday, on similar pleas filed by two different parties challenging the order by the special court in Kolkata last week sentencing civic volunteer Sanjay Roy, the sole convict in the rape and murder of a woman doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

Incidentally, both the parties challenging the plea have demanded the death sentence for Roy.

On the one hand, the division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi will hear the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea challenging the special court order and seeking a death sentence for Roy. On the other hand, the same division bench will hear a similar plea by the West Bengal government also seeking capital punishment for Roy.

The second case is interesting in the sense that while CBI had itself moved the Calcutta High with the plea for a death sentence for Roy, it opposed the state government’s authority for filing such a similar plea.

The CBI questioned the grounds on which the state government could make such an appeal.

According to the counsel for the central agency, only the CBI, which is investigating the case, and the victim’s parents can move such a plea to a higher court, not the state government, as it is not a party to the case.

The hearing in the first case is expected to start after 10.30 a.m. on Monday.

To recall, the doctor was found dead on the hospital premises in August 2024. After the body of the victim was recovered from a seminar hall within the R.G. Kar premises on the morning of August 9 last year, the initial investigation was carried out by the Kolkata Police, whose sleuths also arrested Roy. However, after five days of initial investigation by the city police, the charge of the probe was handed over to the CBI by the Calcutta High Court.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has described the special court order as a failure on the part of the CBI in ensuring the death sentence for the convict. According to her, had the charge of the investigation been with the Kolkata Police, a death sentence would have been ensured for Roy much before as was done in three other cases of rape & murder in the state.