India, Feb. 7 -- The Calcutta high court on Friday rejected the West Bengal government's appeal seeking the death penalty for Sanjay Roy, who was convicted for the rape and murder of a 31-year-old on-duty trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, even as it admitted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea for the same.

A bench of justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashid admitted the CBI plea against the lower court sentencing of Roy.

Additional district and sessions judge Anirban Das on January 20 sentenced Roy to life imprisonment, underlining the case was not "rarest of the rare" to warrant the death sentence.

The state government and the CBI separately moved the high court seeking the death penalty...