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.

The decision to challenge the trial court’s sentence of life imprisonment came hours after the central agency opposed a similar plea by the state government.

Man sentenced to life for rape and murder of Kolkata doctor that sparked nationwide protests - Sanjay Roy, 33, plans to appeal the judgment in a higher court

The CBI is likely to file the appeal against the Sealdah court order by Friday with detailed arguments in favour of capital punishment, they said.

A sessions court in Kolkata will pronounce today the quantum of sentence for Sanjay Roy. Follow The Hindu’s live updates

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 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,

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

The Sealdah court rejected CBI's plea seeking death penalty for Roy, saying the crime did not fall under the "rarest of the rare" category.