India's West Bengal state launched an appeal on Tuesday to overturn a life sentence in favour of the death penalty for a police volunteer convicted of the rape and murder of a junior doctor, a senior lawyer aware of the development said.

The former civic police volunteer was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Sealdah Civil and Criminal Court in Kolkata on Monday.

Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Tuesday moved to the Calcutta High Court demanding capital punishment for the accused Sanjay Roy in the RG Kar rape and murder case, against the Sealdah Civil and Criminal Court order giving life imprisonment.

More individuals should have been questioned in the case while working conditions in India’s hospitals remain abysmal, analysts say.

A court in India has convicted a man of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor - a crime that sparked nationwide outrage. Sanjay Roy, a hospital volunteer worker, was found guilty over the attack, which happened in August last year at a hospital in Kolkata city in West Bengal state.

Unhappy with the verdict, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday said death penalty would have been ensured if the case been handled by the Kolkata Police

An Indian court has sentenced a police volunteer to life in prison after finding him guilty in the rape and killing of a trainee doctor last year

An Indian court awarded the 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. The woman's body was found in a classroom at the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on Aug.

The police had sought the death penalty in a horrific but familiar crime. Its handling by the local authorities had outraged the nation.