A high court division bench, led by Justice Debangshu Basak, on Wednesday released a pending appeal by the CBI seeking the death penalty for Sanjoy Roy.
In January 2025, Roy was awarded life imprisonment in connection with the rape and murder of the junior doctor at RG Kar hospital.
Justice Basak said that the matter was no longer in his jurisdiction.
“The former Chief
Justice of Calcutta High Court had assigned the bench to dispose of the appeals at
a time when the bench had the jurisdiction to hear criminal matters. Now the bench is hearing other matters,” the judge said.
“... much time is needed to hear the appeals,” the judge said, and released the
appeal.
The bench sent the matter back to Chief Justice Sujoy Paul, who will assign a new division bench to hear the
appeal.
