Rights activist Binayak Sen gets life term for sedition

Human rights activist and Maoist sympathiser Dr Binayak Sen has been sentenced to life on charges of sedition and waging war against the state.

The additional district and sessions court at Raipur in Chhattisgarh also awarded life imprisonment to Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal and a Kolkata businessman Piyush Guha for similar offences.

Sen, 58, was arrested from Bilaspur in May 2007 and was detained without trial for 11 months. His trial commenced on April 30, 2008. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court on May 25, 2009.

A qualified paediatrician, Sen was charged with the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 and Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act 1967 among other provisions of the criminal code.

The state had also charged him with functioning as a conduit between Maoists and their incarcerated leader Narayan Sanyal.

Sen, who is vice-president of civil rights organisation People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), worked among the tribals of Chhattisgarh.

He was honoured with the Jonathan Mann award in 2008 while he was still in prison. Activists worldwide, including Nobel laureates, have been pressuring the government for his release.

Sanyal, 67, was arrested in Khammam in Andhra Pradesh in January 2006, while Guha, 35, was nabbed in May 2007.   

Both have been in jail with the prosecution having charged them with helping Maoists to set up a network. The court found all of them guilty under provisions of section 124A (sedition) and 120 B (conspiracy) of IPC and Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act.

They were found guilty of other offences too.        

Mahendra Dubey, Sen’s lawyer, said they will appeal against the verdict. “This kind of judgement was not expected by us,” he said. Sen’s wife Elina and rights activists expressed “shock” and “disappointment” over the verdict.