Addressing a press meet, academician Ilina Sen alleged that the judgment convicting her husband on charges of sedition appeared to be to stem dissent in the bud.
Jailed rights activist Binayak Sen's wife today said it appeared that the only recourse left to her is to seek political asylum in some "liberal" democratic country as she felt that her family is not safe in her own country.
Addressing a press meet, academician Ilina Sen alleged that the judgement convicting her husband on charges of sedition appeared to be to stem dissent in the bud.
"After the verdict, they are targeting me. I am concerned about my two daughters aged 25 years and 20 years. I am really worried about them.
"If the state government does not allow Sen to be freed, I will only get his dead body as life imprisonment means that he will be in jail till his end of life. I need to stay out. I would like to live my life fully...We have gone through colossal agony," Ilina said.
Sen, Naxal ideologue Narayan Sanyal and Kolkata businessman Piyush Guha were sentenced to life imprisonment in December by a court in Raipur for sedition and colluding with Maoists to establish a network to fight the State.
58-year-old Sen, a paediatrician by training and vice-president of People's Union of Civil Liberties, had been accused of acting as courier for Sanyal, who was in jail, by carrying his messages and letters to the underground Maoists.
"Entirely the whole thing is manufactured somewhere else. I may be guilty of contempt of court. Please take me in. Only recourse that seems to be available is to walk into some embassy of liberal democracy and ask for political asylum. I am not safe in this country," an emotional Ilina said.
Noting that the judgment has come as a "complete shock", she claimed "during trial many people asked us to approach court seeking transfer of trial from the state. We believed that a fair trial was possible. The faith has been shattered."
Countering allegations raised by prosecution that she was an ISI agent, she said, "I have friends with Muslim names (like) Ali Asghar, Saifullah Choudhury. I and Binayak have friends who have Muslim names and I am proud of that. But somehow it seems that it is illegal to have friends with Muslim names in this country."
Ilina said the court did not take into account several points raised by the defence, including the testimony of jailors who said that the meetings Sen had with Sanyal were supervised. She also claimed that the prosecution could not establish that Sen and Guha had met.
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