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

An Indian court handed down a life sentence on Monday to a police volunteer convicted of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata, rejecting demands for the death penalty saying it was not a rare crime.

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.