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.

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.

A court in India has sentenced a police volunteer to life in prison for the rape and murder of a trainee doctor who was attacked while on duty in Kolkata last August — a crime that sparked widespread protests across the country.

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) -An Indian police volunteer was convicted on Saturday of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at a hospital in the eastern city Kolkata, in the speedy trial of a crime that sparked national outrage over a lack of safety for women.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will file an appeal before the Calcutta High Court (HC), seeking death sentence for Sanjoy Roy, who was sentenced to "life imprisonment until death" by a Sealdah court in the Kolkata rape-murder case,

Sanjay Roy was held guilty under Sections 66 (rape), 64 (causing injury resulting in death) and 103 (1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

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

The Bengal government has moved a division bench to file an appeal for the death penalty for the convict, Sanjay Roy, in the RG Kar rape-murder case.