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.

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 on Monday sentenced a police volunteer to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of an on-duty doctor last year – a crime 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.

Sanjay Roy, a police volunteer, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday for the rape and murder of a trainee doctor attacked while on duty in Kolkata — a crime that sparked widespread protests across India.

Israel delayed implementing the deal. Palestinians said Israeli strikes on Gaza continued.

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,

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.

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.