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.

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.

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.

Protests erupted in West Bengal last August after the body of a trainee doctor was found with multiple injuries in a hospital lecture hall.

An Indian court on Monday sentenced a police volunteer to life in prison after finding him guilty in the rape and killing of a trainee doctor last year, a crime that sparked nationwide protests over inadequate safety for women and led to a speedy trial in the country’s slow-moving justice system.

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.

A court in India has given the life sentence to a man for the rape and murder of a junior doctor, a crime that sparked nationwide outrage and protests. The judge rejected demands for the death penalty but said that Sanjoy Roy,

The rapist and murderer of an Indian doctor was sentenced to life in prison Monday for a gruesome crime that sparked nationwide protests and widespread hospital strikes last year.

A court in the Indian city of Kolkata on Monday sentenced to life imprisonment the main accused in the rape and murder of a doctor inside a hospital, a case that sparked protests and paralyzed medical services in the country as a demand for job security for health professionals.