SC grants bail to Narayan Sanyal

The Supreme Court has granted bail to the last Maoist sympathiser Narayan Sanyal who was sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of sedition by a Raipur court two years ago.

Earlier the court had allowed the plea for bail by Binayak Sen and a Kolkata businessman Piyush Guha, who were also convicted along with Sanyal.

A bench of justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya on Monday directed bail to 78-year-old Sanyal, considering his age and the fact that he has already spent over six years in jail. Judges said it is for the Raipur court to fix conditions for the bail and asked Sanyal to furnish a personal bond of Rs one lakh before the trial court concerned.

All three convicted persons have challenged their conviction order before the Chhattisgarh High Court. Binayak had been accused by the police of acting as a courier for the imprisoned Sanyal by carrying his “messages and letters” to the “underground” Maoists.

It was reported in February last that that Sanyal had been shifted from the high security Raipur Central Jail amid tight security and taken to Ranchi, Jharkhand, and from there he was likely to be shifted to Girdih.

However, the top court has already ruled that possessing literature relating to Maoists doesn’t make a man liable to face the charge of sedition.