An Indian court awarded a life sentence on Monday to a police volunteer convicted of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata, rejecting demands for the death penalty and saying it was not a rare crime.

An Indian court on Monday sentenced a police volunteer to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of an on-duty doctor last year – a crime that sparked nationwide protests. Sanjay Roy, 33, plans to appeal the judgment in a higher court.

A Kolkata court on Monday criticised the authorities at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and the police for attempting to cover up the murder of a junior doctor as a suicide, Live Law reported.

Judge Anirban Das questioned why the FIR in the case was registered after 11:30 pm when the incident was reported on the morning of August 9 last year.

Roy was on January 18 convicted under charges which entailed a minimum sentence of life imprisonment, while the maximum could be capital punishment.

A court in India's Kolkata has sentenced the man convicted of raping and murdering a junior doctor to life imprisonment. The Indian court's judgement came as a disappointment to the victim's parents.

The West Bengal government has filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court demanding capital punishment for Sanjay Roy, the convict in the RG Kar Medical College rape and murder case. The move challenges the Sealdah Civil and Criminal Court’s decision to sentence Roy to life imprisonment.

Scathing in his criticism of the initial investigation of the Kolkata Police in the RG Kar hospital rape-murder case, trial court judge Anirban Das questioned why the FIR was registered after 11.30 pm when the incident was reported on the morning of the fateful day in August last year.