RG Kar Doctor's Parents Not Keen On Death Penalty, Lawyer Tells Court

The parents of the woman doctor raped and killed at Kolkata's RG Kar Hospital last year, are not keen on the death penalty for the man held guilty, their lawyer has told the Calcutta High Court. They, however, refused to confirm it to reporters. 

The woman's parents, however, demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, sparking off a massive political row. 

The West Bengal government and the investigating agency - the Central Bureau of Investigation -- have appealed for death sentence for the convict. The court will decide on whose petition it will proceed with. 

"The CBI is not working at all and this proved by the judgement copy of the Sealdah court. I can't say more than this. Who will we go to? The state police let us down and now the CBI is letting us down. Whom do we go to? I leave it to the judge of the High Court to decide," the woman's father told reporters.

"The parents -- we understand their sentiments. We have nothing to tell them. I remember once even Hon'ble Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that if my resignation is going to give her justice, that I am ready to do," said Dr Shashi Panja, the state's Women and Child Development Minister.

"But don't we see a kind of a mahaul (environment) which the political parties in Opposition to us are trying to create. They are trying to get advantage of a rape and murder and it is so unfortunate," the minister added.

Senior Trinamool leader and minister Firhad Hakim has alleged the parents are saying things dictated by political rivals and unfairly targeting the Chief Minister.