New Delhi – More than three months after the rape and murder of a 31-year-old female doctor in India sparked widespread protests across the country, the trial of the sole person accused of the brutal crime began Monday in a special court in India . the eastern state of West Bengal. The only accused in the case is Sanjoy Roy, a volunteer member of the Kolkata Police accused of rape and murder last week.
If convicted, Roy faces life in prison or the death penalty.
He claims he was framed, shouting from a police van as he was being taken from court to jail last week that he was completely innocent, according to Indian media reports.
“I have remained silent until now. But I did not commit the rape and murder. I am intimidated by the government and my own department. They have asked me not to say a word. But I am not guilty, I am being framed.” to protect the real culprits,” he reportedly said.
India was hit by widespread protests and mass protests doctors’ strikes in August, when medics left their jobs to demand justice for the young doctor who was found murdered in a lecture hall at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9.
At the time, authorities said the woman had gone to the lecture hall to rest during a night shift when she was attacked. An autopsy confirmed that she was sexually assaulted before being murdered. It also suggested she may have resisted her attacker and been tortured before being killed.
Doctors across the country demanded safer workplaces, while citizens demanded safety for women in a country where an average of 90 rapes were reported per day in 2022, according to the latest government data.
About 128 witnesses are expected to take the stand during the trial, with hearings taking place daily as authorities look to expedite the high-profile case. The procedure will not be public.
India’s Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has also arrested a police officer and the hospital superintendent for alleged evidence tampering and financial irregularities.
The doctor’s killing resurfaced the country’s anger over women’s safety, which most recently boiled over in the wake of the crisis. Gang rape and murder in 2012 of a young woman on a bus from New Delhi as it passed through the metropolis.
That brutal attack prompted India’s parliament to enact stricter laws against sexual violence, but there is no evidence that the stricter laws have reduced the number of sexual assaults in the country.
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