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Life term for Binayak Senhttp://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article974280.ece?homepage=true
Aman Sethi
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Dr. Binayak Sen being shifted to jail after he was awarded life sentence by the Raipur Sessions Court,
in Chhattisgarh, on Friday. Photo: Special Arrangement
Related
PHOTOS
NEWS
Health rights coalition condemns Sen's convictionA shocking verdictLawyers, activists shocked by
Binayak Sen verdictPolice fabricated evidence in Binayak Sen case: defenceCongress declines
comment on verdict against SenFrom White House to ISI, prosecution casts wide net Prosecution
struggles to link Binayak Sen case accused to conspiracyUnsigned letter holds the key to Binayak SencaseBinayak Sen condemns Dantewada massacre
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TOPICS
crime, law and justicecrime
judiciary (system of justice)
justice and rights
A few minutes past one o' clock in the afternoon at the Raipur Sessions Court in Chhattisgarh, the wall
of rifle-wielding policemen parted as Dr. Binayak Sen, Pijush Guha and Narayan Sanyal were usheredout of Justice B.P. Verma's courtroom and bundled into a waiting police van.
The judge simply said guilty, cried Pranhita Sen as she watched the van carrying her father, a
celebrated human rights activist and physician, recede into the distance. By late afternoon, JusticeVerma emerged from his chamber to pronounce the three men guilty of criminal conspiracy to commit
sedition, under Section 124(a) read with 20 (b) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and sentenced them to
life imprisonment.
In his order (written in Hindi) Justice Verma said that while Mr. Sanyal was a member of the bannedCommunist Party of India (Maoist), Dr. Sen and Mr. Guha aided and supported the CPI (Maoist),
including ferrying three letters purportedly written by Mr. Sanyal.
Justice Verma justified the harsh sentence on the ground that the way that terrorists and Maoistorganisations are killing State and Central paramilitary forces and innocent Adivasis and spreading fear,terror and disorder across the country and community implies that this court cannot be generous to the
accused and give them the minimum sentence under law.
Dr. Sen, Mr. Guha and Mr. Sanyal were also convicted under Section 39(2) of the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act 1967, and Sections 8 (1), (2), (3) and (5) of the Chhattisgarh Special Public SecurityAct 2005 which charged them with supporting, aiding and abetting in the activities of a criminal
organisation, in this instance the CPI (Maoist), which carry sentences of up to 5 years.
Mr. Sanyal was also found guilty of belonging to a banned organisation under Section 20 of the UAPA,
which carries a sentence of 10 years. The sentences shall run concurrently.
The accused were not convicted under Section 121 (a) of the IPC, which relates to waging war against
the Government of India.
In May 2007, Dr. Sen was accused of acting as a courier between the alleged Maoist leader Narayan
Sanyal and Kolkata businessman Pijush Guha, and imprisoned for two years before getting bail on thedirections of the Supreme Court.
The prosecution alleged that Mr. Guha was arrested on May 6, 2007 and found to be in possession of
Maoist publications and three letters purportedly written in jail by Sanyal, and delivered to him by Dr.
Sen. As per prison records, Dr. Sen frequently visited the incarcerated Sanyal in his capacity aspresident of the Chhattisgarh unit of the People's Union for Civil Liberties. The four-year trial has been
dogged by allegations that the police fabricated vital evidence and schooled key witnesses.
This sentence reveals the true face of the Indian state. [In Chhattisgarh] they would jail Mahatma
Gandhi if they could, Mr. Guha said.
This judgment makes me feel really sorry for the state of my country, said Ilina Sen, wife of Dr. Sen.I hope the Indian judicial system has the strength to negate this judgment.
Senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan said: The Supreme Court has held that the charge
of sedition can be upheld only if the prosecution proves that the accused attempted to incite violence or
public disorder. It is clear that this case doesn't meet that standard.
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Opinion Editorial
December 25, 2010
A shocking verdict
Share Comment print T+ T+ T-The life sentence handed down to Binayak Sen by a Chhattisgarh trial court on Friday is so over the top
and outrageous that it calls into question the fundamentals of the Indian justice system. The trial judgeshocked the conscience of the nation by finding the eminent doctor and rights activist guilty of sedition
and conspiring to wage war against the state under Sections 120(B) and 124(A) of the Indian Penal
Code, Sections 8(1), (2), (3), and (5) of the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, andSection 39 (2) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (as amended in 2004). The fact that the
Chhattisgarh police's case against Dr. Sen consisted of pretty thin material was taken into the realm of
the absurd by the public prosecutor tying himself in knots in an attempt to burnish the doctor's alleged
sins. So it was that an innocuous email message sent by his wife, Ilina, to the director of the IndianSocial Institute a Delhi-based institution which happens to share an acronym with Pakistan's Inter-
Services Intelligence directorate got converted into suspicious communication with the dreadedISI. Another email referring to an occupant of the White House as a chimpanzee was introduced bythe prosecutor as evidence of the kind of code language terrorists resort to. But tragically, it is the
Chhattisgarh police that have had the last laugh in this round.
The broad charge against Dr. Sen of helping the banned Community Party of India (Maoist) wage war
against the state was constructed by the police around the scaffolding of his supposed relationship withNarayan Sanyal, an alleged leader of the Maoists who was incarcerated in Raipur jail following his
arrest in 2006. In his capacity as a medical doctor and head of the People's Union for Civil Liberties,
Dr. Sen often met Mr. Sanyal in jail but each of these meetings, as the jail authorities subsequentlytestified, was closely supervised and afforded no opportunity for the conveying of messages to the
Maoist leadership. So the police hit upon the strategy of linking him to the recovery from Kolkata-
based businessman Piyush Guha of a letter allegedly written by Mr. Sanyal. During the trial, thedefence counsel pointed to numerous holes in the police case, including the introduction of anunsigned, typewritten letter supposedly sent by the Maoists to Dr. Sen, despite the fact that the letter
found no mention in the attested list of documents recovered from his residence the same day. It goes
without saying that Dr. Sen has the right to appeal the conviction and the savage sentence. The higherjudiciary, which did not exactly cover itself in glory by denying him bail for nearly two years, must
ensure the expeditious hearing of his appeal and grant him immediate bail till the end of the appeal
process.
Health rights coalition condemns Sen's
convictionSpecial Correspondent
Share Comment print T+ T+ T-Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, a coalition of organisations promoting health rights, has expressed outrage at
the life imprisonment awarded by a Raipur court to civil rights activist Binayak Sen for sedition and
treason.
In a statement issued here on Friday, the Abhiyan said Dr. Sen enjoyed an illustrious record of 25 years
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of selfless service in health and human rights. He was an active member and former convenor of the
Medico Friend Circle, a national organisation of health professionals, which worked for an alternative
health system to meet the needs of the poor.
The judgment, the Abhiyan said, was an unacceptable attempt to intimidate and vilify those whoadvocated the rights of the poor and highlighted the indiscriminate use of state machinery to stifle
democratic dissent. The Abhiyan believed that great injustice was done, not only to Dr. Sen but also to
the democratic fabric of this country.
Dr. Sen, who is the general secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, Chhattisgarh, andnational vice-president of the organisation, is closely associated with the Abhiyan, the Indian chapter of
the People's Health Movement.
The Abhiyan pointed out that the Christian Medical College in Vellore conferred on him the Paul
Harrison Award in 2004, the highest award given to an alumnus for distinguished service in rural areas.He still inspired successive generations of students and faculty. Many of his articles, based on his work,
were appreciated internationally. His indictment under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act,
2006, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, is utterly condemnable.
Lawyers, activists shocked by Binayak Sen
verdictAman Sethi
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PTI Dr. Binayak Sen being shifted to jail after he was awarded life sentence by the Raipur Sessions
Court, in Chhattisgarh, on Friday.
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Related
NEWS
Health rights coalition condemns Sen's convictionLife term for Binayak Sen Police fabricated
evidence in Binayak Sen case: defenceFrom White House to ISI, prosecution casts wide net
Prosecution struggles to link Binayak Sen case accused to conspiracyUnsigned letter holds the key toBinayak Sen caseBinayak Sen condemns Dantewada massacreCongress declines comment on verdictagainst Sen
TOPICS
human interestpeople
social issue
As a crush of lawyers, reporters and policemen awaited the sentencing of Dr. Binayak Sen, Pijush
Guha, and Narayan Sanyal on the ground floor of the Raipur Sessions Court, an almost identical case
was under way in another courtroom on the first floor of the same building.
Asit Kumar Sen Gupta stood before Justice O.P. Gupta, awaiting his sentence for criminal conspiracy
to commit sedition and wage war against the Government of India. He had been arrested in January
2008 and, like Dr. Sen, charged with hatching a conspiracy to aid the banned Communist Party of India(Maoist) in its goal of overthrowing the Indian State.
Like Dr. Sen, Mr. Sen Gupta was also found guilty under section 124 (a) to commit sedition. Mr. Sen
Gupta avoided the charge of criminal conspiracy, but was sentenced to three years for sedition and
another eight years under Section 39 (2) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act; Dr. Sen and hisco-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment for a conspiracy to commit sedition on the basis of
three letters purportedly written by Mr. Sanyal and handed over to Dr. Sen and Mr. Guha.
Dr. Sen is a celebrated physician and human rights activist who highlighted police and Maoist atrocitiesin the running battle between Indian security forces and the guerrilla army of the CPI (Maoist). Hisconviction, and the severity of his sentence, has shocked social activists and senior advocates.
Dr. Sen's trial has been dogged by allegations that the Chhattisgarh police planted vital evidence,
schooled witnesses and manufactured testimonies. A number of key witnesses also turned hostile in
court.
Convicting Dr. Sen shows that sections of the judiciary are willing to act as instruments of a State'spolicy to silence dissent, said senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, This will undermine
the people's faith in the lower sections of the judiciary.
A couple of years for the bosses of Union Carbide and a life sentence for Binayak Sen, said writer
and activist Arundhati Roy, referring to the sentence handed down to those accused in the Bhopal GasTragedy of 1984.
After producing Marx's Das Kapital and a letter from the Indian Social Institute as evidence against
him, the crisis of Indian democracy does not get more dangerous than this, Ms. Roy said, referring to
the quality of the evidence marshalled by the police in their case against Dr. Sen.
Where is the crime? Where is the deterrence? asked counter-terrorism expert Dr. Ajai Sahni when
asked if the verdict would serve any purpose in the government's battle against the CPI (Maoist). This
is a perversion of the investigative process and an index of the incompetence of the Chhattisgarh
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police, he said.
It is scandalous to say that he [Dr. Sen] was working against the interest of the country, said Justice
Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and member of the People's Union for
Civil Liberties (PUCL).
The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act., under which he has been convicted, is unconstitutional.PUCL will challenge his conviction and the Act.
Keywords:Binayak Sen,human rights
News National
Raipur, December 14, 2010
Police fabricated evidence in Binayak Sen case:
defenceAman Sethi
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The Hindu A file photo of Binayak Sen. Photo: M. Vedhan
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accused to conspiracyBinayak Sen condemns Dantewada massacreLife term for Binayak Sen From
White House to ISI, prosecution casts wide net
TOPICS
crime, law and justicejudiciary (system of justice)
crime, law and justicepolitics
Lawyer highlights inconsistencies in account of events described by the Investigating Officer
On the third day of the closely watched trial of celebrated doctor and activist Binayak Sen, the defence
focussed on Piyush Guha, a Kolkata businessman who, along with suspected Maoist leader Narayan
Sanyal, is accused of conspiring with Dr. Sen to assist the urban operations of the banned CommunistParty of India (Maoist).
The prosecution claims that Mr. Guha was arrested on May 6, 2007 near the Raipur railway station
with Maoist publications and three letters allegedly written by Narayan Sanyal in jail and passed on by
Dr. Sen.
The defence countered and said Mr. Guha was picked up on May 1, 2007, and illegally detained for a
week before the police staged his arrest.
Mr. Guha's lawyer, S.K. Farhan, pointed that the prosecution has not produced a single eye-witness,
letter, phone transcript or call-log linking Mr. Guha to Dr. Sen. The prosecution's case rests on the
testimony of one Anil Kumar Singh, a cloth merchant who claims to have been present at the time ofMr. Guha's arrest.
In court, Mr. Singh claimed to have overheard Mr. Guha saying that Dr. Sen had given him Sanyal's
letters, thereby establishing a link between the three.
Inconsistencies'
Today, the defence sought to highlight the inconsistencies in the account of events described byInvestigating Officer B.S. Jagrit. Jagrit is no less than superman, said Mr. Farhan. According to his
statements, he is everywhere, all the time, and works faster than any mortal I have seen, he said,
drawing attention to Mr. Jagrit's testimony that he managed to arrest Mr. Guha, search him twice, findtwo witnesses, complete all the paperwork consisting of personal search memos, arrest memos and
seizure memos, apply for (and receive) written permission from Senior Superintendent of Police B.S.Maravi and deposit all seized items in the police safe house in about 90 minutes.
News States Other States
Raipur, December 16, 2010
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Unsigned letter holds the key to Binayak Sen
caseAman Sethi
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Binayak Sen.
Related
NEWSLife term for Binayak Sen Lawyers, activists shocked by Binayak Sen verdict Prosecution struggles tolink Binayak Sen case accused to conspiracyFrom White House to ISI, prosecution casts wide net We
have a situation where famine walks beside usBinayak Sen condemns Dantewada massacre
TOPICS
IndiaChhattisgarh
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crime, law and justicejudiciary (system of justice)
prosecution
A smooth, creaseless type-written sheet of paper might prove to be the decisive piece of evidence in the
trial of celebrated doctor and activist Binayak Sen. Article 37' (A-37) is an unsigned letter urging Dr.Sen to send a fact-finding mission to probe alleged police atrocities in Chhattisgarh in his capacity as
the State president of the People's Union for Civil Liberties.
The prosecution insists that the document proves Dr. Sen was in direct correspondence with the banned
CPI (Maoist). The defence believes that the letter is the clearest indication that the Chhattisgarh policefabricated evidence to frame Dr. Sen.
In May 2005, Dr. Sen was accused of acting as courier between alleged Maoist leader Narayan Sanyal
and Kolkata businessman Pijush Guha, charged with aiding a terrorist organisation, sedition and
waging war against the government of India, and imprisoned for two years before getting bail. Hishouse was searched soon after his arrest, and the nature of the documents recovered by the police
formed the basis of the case against him.
A-37 is not mentioned in the seizure memo prepared by the police after the search, said defence
counsel Surinder Singh in court on Wednesday, It is also not mentioned in the challan and doesn't
carry the signature of either Dr. Sen or the investigating officer. The prosecution has maintained thatwhen Dr. Sen's house was searched, all articles were signed by Dr. Sen, Investigating officer B.B.
Rajpoot and two independent witnesses. So why wasn't A-37 signed?
It is the sole piece of documentary evidence that directly links Dr. Sen to the Maoists, Mr. Singh said,It was supposedly mailed to Dr. Sen two years ago but it has no creases, no marks. It has been
prepared by the police and subsequently inserted along with the other articles.
In their testimonies, policemen B.B. Rajpoot and B.S. Jagrit suggested that the police might have
forgotten to sign the letter and enter it in the seizure memo, or that the letter might have beeninadvertently missed among the items recovered from Dr. Sen's house. However, Mr. Singh wondered
how the two independent witnesses remembered to sign it.
Mr. Singh drew the court's attention to the fact that the police sent copies of the seized documents to
the prosecution and defence lawyers. Our copies only bear the signatures of Dr. Sen and Mr. Rajpoot,and have not been signed by the witnesses. Yet the documents submitted in court have all four
signatures, said Mr. Singh, This suggests that the witnesses did not sign the documents at the time
they were seized, but signed them at a later stage after the documents were supposedly sealed.
Keywords:Binayak Sen case, PUCL, CPI (Maoist)
News National
Kolkata, April 11, 2010
Binayak Sen condemns Dantewada massacreRaktima Bose
Share Comment (3) print T+ T+ T-Dialogue is the need of the hour rather than intensifying security operations
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Condemning the massacre of 76 security personnel by Maoists at Dantewada in Chhattisgarh on April
6, eminent human rights activist Binayak Sen said on Saturday that holding a dialogue between the
rebels and the government was the need of the hour rather than intensifying security operations.
Dr. Sen was in prison in Raipur for two years for alleged Maoist links but freed on bail in May lastyear, following widespread protests both in India and abroad.
Speaking to The Hindu over telephone from Vellore, where he is undergoing medical treatment, Dr. Sen
said he supported neither the government's nor the Maoists' violence against each other since both led
to large-scale displacement of people, social inequity and injustice.
In a statement, he said: We condemn and deplore the processes of violence and militarisation that haveresulted in the tragic death of 76 police personnel in Dantewada on April 6, as well as the deaths of so
many people on both sides of the ongoing conflict between the Maoists and the state forces. We also
deplore the attendant tragic deaths of so many ordinary citizens whose deaths have gone unrecordedand largely unmourned. We cannot and do not valorise recourse to planned military strategy as a way to
bring about social and political change either by the state or by those opposing it. At the same time we
do mark the reality of structural violence and its role in perpetuating the criminally high levels of
inequity we see all around us. We join ours to the many voices appealing for the cessation of violence
and the initiation of political dialogue to bring about peace with justice and equity.Dr. Sen, a physician, said the very fact that 3.5 lakh people have been displaced from 700 villages of
Dantewada district alone was indicative of the situation across Chhattisgarh.
Pointing to the malnutrition figures provided by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau, which says33 per cent of the population, including 50 per cent of scheduled tribes and 60 per cent of scheduled
castes, suffer from chronic under-nutrition, Dr. Sen wondered what prevented the administration from
addressing this situation in regions not affected by Maoist presence.
Referring to a long-term study undertaken by a small non-governmental organisation, Jan SwarthSahyog, which functions from the Ganiyari village in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district, he said the
people in the region suffer from chronic malnutrition and malnutrition-related diseases like malaria and
pulmonary tuberculosis during the period of August to November each year.
There is no Maoist in this area. So the government argument that Maoist violence is responsible forthe terrible level of under-development, poverty and inequity does not hold hereif body mass index is
monitored on a monthly basis, there is a dip of BMI when rice harvest from the previous year runs
outThe starvation leads to low immunity of the body and so malaria sets in. Also 95 per cent of the
pulmonary tuberculosis cases have been found with BMI less than 18.5, Dr. Sen said.
Keywords:Binayak Sen,Dantewada massacre,Maoists
Prosecution struggles to link Binayak Sen case
accused to conspiracyAman Sethi Dec12th
Share Comment (2) print T+ T+ T-
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The Hindu Nearly four years after the celebrated doctor and activist Binayak Sen was arrested on
charges of aiding the banned CPI (Maoist) and conspiring to overthrow the Indian state, the prosecutionbegan its final arguments. File photo
Related
NEWS
Lawyers, activists shocked by Binayak Sen verdictFrom White House to ISI, prosecution casts widenet We have a situation where famine walks beside us Binayak Sen condemns Dantewada massacre
Life term for Binayak Sen
TOPICS
IndiaChhattisgarh
crime, law and justicejudiciary (system of justice)
prosecutionunrest, conflicts and warguerrilla activity
Two of the three accused are still imprisoned
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Nearly four years after the celebrated doctor and activist Binayak Sen was arrested on charges of aiding
the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and conspiring to overthrow the Indian state, the
prosecution began its final arguments.
The State of Chhattisgarh sought to prove that Piyush Guha, Binayak Sen and Narayan Sanyal hadactively conspired to assist the urban operations of the CPI (Maoist), a guerrilla party committed to the
overthrow of the state.
The prosecution claims that Kolkata-based businessman and alleged Maoist Piyush Guha was arrested
on May 6, 2007 and found to be in possession of Maoist publications and three letters purportedlywritten in jail by alleged Maoist leader Narayan Sanyal, and delivered to him by Dr. Sen.
While Dr. Sen was incarcerated for two years before finally getting bail, Mr. Guha and Mr. Sanyal
continue to be imprisoned.
In his final arguments, prosecutor T.C. Pandiya tried to independently link Mr. Guha to Dr. Sen, and Dr.
Sen to Mr. Sanyal, to establish the conspiracy. He first cited the testimonies of witness DeepakChaubey, who deposed that in 2004 he had rented his house to Mr. Sanyal on the recommendation of
Dr. Sen, to suggest that Dr. Sen had found a haven for Mr. Sanyal. Dr. Sen has denied Chaubey's
allegations.
The link between Dr. Sen and Mr. Guha is based on the deposition of witness Anil Kumar Singh. Policeclaim to have arrested Mr. Guha on May 6 near the Raipur railway station. However, in an affidavit
filed in the Supreme Court on November 23, 2009, investigating officer S.S. Rajpoot has submitted that
Mr. Guha was in fact arrested at Hotel Mahindra, in Raipur. Mr. Guha has stated that he was arrested onMay 1 from the hotel and illegally detained for five days before his arrest was made public.
The prosecution's case is supported by witness Anil Singh, who claims to have been present when the
police arrested Mr. Guha. Singh has signed the seizure memo, affirming the police's recovery of 10
articles from Mr. Guha's possessions.
On cross-examination, Singh has admitted that he has signed against only three of the 10 itemsallegedly discovered in Mr. Guha's bag. The remaining seven articles have been signed by policemen
B.S. Jagrit and Ravindra Upadhyay. Singh also deposed that Mr. Upadhyay wrote out the seizure
memo, which he, Singh, subsequently signed. This was contradicted by B.S. Jagrit, who testified thatthe he had written out the seizure memo himself. The police are also unable to explain why Mr. Guha's
arrest memo makes no mention of the 10 seized articles.
The prosecution also referred to the testimonies of hotel owner Suresh Chand Yadu. The police had
claimed that Mr. Yadu saw Dr. Sen visit Mr. Guha while the latter was staying at Hotel Geetanjali.However, Mr. Yadu subsequently turned hostile, stating that he never saw anyone visit Mr. Guha during
his stay at the hotel. Prosecutor Pandiya stated that while the witness had turned hostile, his statements
still indicated a link between Dr. Sen and Mr. Guha.
The arguments shall continue on Monday.
Keywords:Binayak Sen case, CPI (Maoist)
News National
Raipur, December 12, 2010
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From White House to ISI, prosecution casts
wide netAman Sethi Dec 12th
Share print T+ T+ T-
We have a chimpanzee in the White House, said public prosecutor T.C. Pandiya, eliciting a rare smilefrom the presiding judge and lawyers gathered at the closing arguments of the trial of celebrated doctorand activist Binayak Sen, who has been charged with criminal conspiracy and waging war against the
Indian state.
To buttress the state's case against him, Mr. Pandiya was reading out emails recovered from Dr. Sen's
computer, which was seized by the Chhattisgarh police. This email has been written in code. It issignificant because terrorists oppose the U.S. President, the prosecutor said.
In May 2007, the police arrested Dr. Sen and Kolkata-based businessman Piyush Guha and accused
them of conspiring with Narayan Sanyal, a 74-year-old prisoner, who is alleged to be a senior leader in
the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
Acted as courier
As per jail records, Dr. Sen visited Mr. Sanyal 33 times in the Raipur central jail. Dr. Sen hasmaintained that the visits were in his capacity as a physician and the general secretary of the People's
Union for Civil Liberties. The prosecution contends that Dr. Sen acted as a courier for Mr. Sanyal.
On the second day of the prosecution's arguments, Mr. Pandiya attempted to prove that Dr. Sen and his
wife Ilina were part of an international terror network. Ilina Sen has also written an email to oneFernandes from the ISI, he said, We do not know if this is the Pakistan's ISI [Inter-Services
Intelligence], but there is some significance to this.
Mr. Pandiya also took exception to the use of the word comrade by Ms. Ilina Sen when writing to
one Comrade Kusumlata.' Comrade is only used to refer to someone who is a Maoist, he said.
Ms. Ilina told this correspondent that the first email was sent to Walter Fernandes at the Indian SocialInstitute in Delhi and the second was intended for Kusum Lata Kedia, former director of the Gandhi
Institute, Varanasi.
The prosecution also brought attention to article 37', a letter allegedly seized from Dr. Sen's home, that
proves that Dr. Sen was in frequent correspondence with the Maoists. It has been brought to the court'sattention that while all seizures have been countersigned by Dr. Sen, article 37 only carries the
signature of the police raiding party. Mr. Pandiya dismissed such complaints on the grounds that the
letter was relatively innocuous and had the police wanted to fabricate evidence, they could have comeup with something more damning.
Keywords:Binayak Sen case, CPI (Maoist)
Binayak Sen gets life for seditionhttp://www.telegraphindia.com/1101225/jsp/frontpage/story_13347373.jspOUR BUREAU
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Raipur/New Delhi, Dec. 24: Chhattisgarh-based rights activist Binayak Sen was today convicted of
colluding with Maoists to fight the state and handed a life term in a judgment condemned by rights
bodies as a blow to Indian democracy.
The Raipur court also awarded life sentences to the 58-year-old paediatricians co-accused CPI(Maoist) leader Narayan Sanyal, 80, and Calcutta-based businessmen Piyush Guha, 30 declaring all
three guilty of sedition and conspiracy.
Sen, a public health specialist who has received many awards for his three-decade-long work among
Chhattisgarhs impoverished tribals, was arrested in Bilaspur on May 14, 2007. He was charged withpassing messages and letters from the imprisoned Sanyal to Guha and other alleged Maoists.
Former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajinder Sachar said the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties
(PUCL), of which Sen was national vice-president, would challenge the verdict as well as the Unlawful
Activities Prevention Act under which Sen was found guilty. Sachar described the UAP Act asunconstitutional.
Sens younger brother Dipankar broke down after the verdict. Sens wife Ilina sat down on the courts
stairs in disbelief and said: There is no evidence against him. We will go to the high court.
Rights activists said Sen had been victimised for exposing the atrocities committed on tribals by theSalwa Judum, the anti-Maoist vigilante group formed by the Chhattisgarh government.
In June 2007, US thinker Noam Chomsky and 22 Nobel laureates had appealed to the Centre to freeSen, saying his imprisonment was an attempt to intimidate... democratic voices... speaking out against
human rights violations in the state. But Sen, a heart patient, had to wait two years for bail, which was
granted by the Supreme Court in May 2009. In 2008, he spent a month in solitary confinement.
Sen had been arrested after Guha was picked up on May 6, 2007, from Raipur railway station. Thepolice claimed Guha was carrying three letters from Sanyal that Sen had passed on to him.
After his conviction, he was taken into police custody. The sentence was pronounced in the afternoon.
http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=353372&catid=35
Binayak Sen convicted of sedition, given life sentence
24 December 2010
sns & agencies
Raipur/New Delhi, 24 DEC: Rights activist Binayak Sen, whose incarceration a group of 22 Nobellaureates had condemned, was sentenced to life imprisonment today by a Chhattisgarh court for
sedition and his links with Maoists. His shaken family termed it a sad day for Indian democracy while
fellow activists reacted with disbelief and vowed to appeal the decision.
As Sen, 59, clad in a kurta-pyjama and looking his frail self, looked on, Raipur district and sessions
court judge Mr BP Varma convicted him for sedition and criminal conspiracy under 124 A and 120 Brespectively of the Indian Penal Code. The court also jailed him for between one and five years under
various Sections of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and the Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act. The sentences will run concurrently. The court, however, acquitted Sen of the charge
of waging war against the state that was levelled under section 121 (A) of the IPC. Sen was also
acquitted of charges under sections 20 and 21 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.The court also convicted two others ~ Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal, in his 80s, and 30-year-old
Kolkata-based businessman Piyush Guha ~ and handed them life terms. They are already in judicial
custody and were present in court.
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A doctor by profession, Sen was out on bail but was taken into custody soon after the judgement. He
was arrested in 2007 from Bilaspur for alleged links with Sanyal but released in May 2009 at the behest
of the Supreme Court. In 2008, when he was in jail, the US-based Global Health Council awarded him
for his work in global health and human rights. The same year, a group of 22 Nobel laureatescondemned Sen's incarceration.
Sen's wife Illina said at the court building: I totally disagree with the court's decision. There is no
evidence against him. We will go to the High Court.One who has worked for the poor of the country for 30 years, if that person is found guilty of sedition
and conspiracy - when gangsters and scamsters are walking free - I think it's a scandalous situation. I
am sad. I am sad because my daughters, my husband and I will have to fight another long legal battle. Idon't know how long will this be. I am even more sad for the state of Indian democracy, Illina said.
This is a fabricated case by the Chhattisgarh government and police. We will go for appeal, said Ms
Kavita Srivastava, general secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, of which Sen is a vice
president. Rights activists had thronged the trial court ahead of the verdict."I am shocked. We never expected this because there was not a shred of evidence against him. This is a
sad day for our democracy," PUCL secretary Mahipal Singh said in New Delhi. We have just got the
summary of the judgment, so it will take some time for us to decide the legal course of action, he said.Since coming to Chhattisgarh in 1981, Sen had spent much of his time to bring health-care to tribals in
the impoverished tribal areas. The case against Sen continued even as guerrillas from the CPI-Maoist
stepped up attacks on security forces in Chhattisgarh. The state's BJP government has been accused ofacting tough against rights activists.
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Other Related News
India Sentences Doctor to Life for Aiding RebelsBy HARI KUMAR
Published: December 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/world/asia/25india.html?emc=eta1
NEW DELHI In a ruling that outraged human rights advocates, an Indian court on Friday sentenced
a doctor to life imprisonment on charges that he committed sedition by aiding Maoist rebels in ruralIndia.
The case of Binayak Sen, 60, had attracted international attention when a group of Nobel laureates
wrote to Indian leaders asking that he be released from jail as he awaited trial.
The court in the state of Chhattisgarh convicted him on Friday on two counts of sedition and
conspiracy while finding him innocent of a third charge of waging war against the state.
Dr. Sen, a well known figure in Chattisgarh, had provided treatment to poor people in the state since
1981. This is completely irresponsible, said his wife, Elina Sen, during an interview on NDTV, a
news channel. There was not a single piece of evidence against him.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/india/index.html?inline=nyt-geohttp://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/india/index.html?inline=nyt-geo8/8/2019 Hindu on Jail Term
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The prosecution accused Dr. Sen of acting as a courier for jailed Maoist rebels and said it had
recovered some letters written by militants that were in his possession. Dr. Sen visited jailed rebels on
several occasions. He was arrested in 2007 and was not granted bail for two years.
Human rights activists condemned the verdict. This is completely outrageous and unjustified, saidRajendra Kumar Sail of the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties, who is also a former colleague of Dr.
Sen. We will definitely go for appeal against the judgment.
Maoist rebels, who claim to fight for poor people, want to capture political power through armed
struggle. They are active in broad swathes of remote regions of rural India and have been described byPrime MinisterManmohan Singh as the biggest threat to Indias internal security. Indias Home
Ministry has said that Maoists killed 591 civilians in 2009.
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Binayak Sen Faces India Trial Verdict
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Hindu on Jail Term
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AFP/Getty Images
Binayak Sen was arrested in May 2007 and released on bail two years later.
NEW DELHIAn Indian court Friday is scheduled to deliver a verdict in the trial of Binayak Sen, a
doctor accused of aiding India's Maoists in a closely watched case that activists have labeled areferendum on whether India, the world's largest democracy, supports human rights or squashes them in
the name of national security.Dr. Sen was arrested in May 2007 in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, which in the last decade
has become a center for India's Maoist rebels, locally known as Naxalites. The insurgency, which beganin a village called Naxalbari in the eastern state of West Bengal in 1967, seeks to overthrow the Indian
government in a bid to present a communist paradigm of development. The rebels have attracted
support by playing up local grievances such a lack of school and health facilities and the perceived
abuse of land rights in the name of industrialization.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said Naxalism is the single largest threat to India's internal
security. The government's approach at the national and state levels has been to counter the insurgency
with a two-pronged strategy of police mobilization and infrastructure development.
The government accused Dr. Sen of aiding the insurgents by passing notes from a jailed Maoist rebelhe was treating to someone outside the jail. He was released on bail in May 2009. He denies passing
notes or committing any crime, and says his activities in the jail were constantly supervised by the
authorities.
"There is no explanation as to why I was put in prison," Dr. Sen told The Wall Street Journal in aninterview after his release. "I will continue with my role as a doctor and human-rights activist."
Of his alleged support for the Maoists, Dr. Sen said he didn't support violence from either the state or
the Maoists but that the grievances that Maoists were tapping into for support among the populace were
"real."
Dr. Sen says it was his criticism of killings of civilians by a vigilante group that prompted his arrest and
prosecution. The group, Salwa Judum, was created in 2005 and is designed and supported by the stategovernment in Chhattisgarh to nip the insurgency where it is thriving: villages inhabited by India's
indigenous tribes.
Dr. Sen says the main motive of the group, though, is to clear villages so the land can be quarried foriron ore, bauxite and diamonds. Chhattisgarh is one of the most mineral-rich Indian states.
In 2008, when Dr. Sen was still in jail, the U.S.-based Global Health Council awarded Dr. Sen its 2008
Jonathan Mann Award for global health and human rights in recognition of his services to poor and
indigenous communities in India. In May that year, a group of 22 Noble laureates sent a letter to theIndian government criticizing Dr. Sen's incarceration and asking that he be released to receive the
award in person.
"We also wish to express grave concern that Dr. Sen appears to be incarcerated solely for peacefully
exercising his fundamental human rights...and that he is charged under two internal security laws thatdo not comport with international human rights standards," they said in the letter. Meenakshi Ganguly,
the South Asia director for the Human Rights Watch said the legal case against Dr. Sen has "several
political implications. We are hoping that the justice will be done."
Ms. Ganguly added: "If he has been unfairly treated by the state, then the court should tell thegovernment not to make political prisoners out of individuals like Binayak Sen."
Since coming to Chhattisgarh in 1981, Dr. Sen has focused on helping tribal Indians, among India's
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most disadvantaged. In 2004, he became the national vice president of the People's Union for Civil
Liberties, a civil rights group.
A spokesman for the Chhattisgarh state government said: "We have always taken the stand that the
matter is sub judice and whatever be the verdict we will check on its merit and then take a proper legalcourse."
In a statement before the verdict Mr. Sen said: "I submit that my prosecution is malafide; in fact it is a
persecution."
"I am being made an example of by the state government of Chhattisgarh as a warning to others not to
expose the patent trampling of human rights taking place in the state," he added.
Write to Krishna Pokharel at [email protected]
Dr. Binayak Sen: A Travesty Of Justice
By Trevor Selvam
25 December, 2010
Countercurrents.org
I sit at my laptop trying to control my anger, grief and frustration. Dr. Sen sits behind bars (sentenced to
life by a judge in Chattisgarh) and scamsters, hucksters lounge around in the company of lawmakers,home ministers, prime ministers as they shuffle and slither around with folded hands and fluttering
eyes, seeking further immunity from justice. What should I hit out at? What good will come out of it?
Who will listen? Who will look into it with a fresh pair of eyes? Who will fight for Dr. Sen with ONENATIONAL VOICE for justice ? Will someone pick up the phone this moment and call up all the
NGOS with a zillion causes to put their hands, arms and voices together for once and be heard with a
single voice....? Will everyone who cares about this country and has been despairing in a hundreddifferent committees come together as ONE COMMITTEE with a bold stand against this horrendous
caricature of justice?
Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice of the Delhi Court has already launched the first volley. Who else
will join him? Who will come together nationally and internationally? Will an international campaignbe launched to expose the sorry condition of Indias judiciary? Will the 22 Nobel laureates again sign
up for a new letter of protest? Will someone raise it with Ban Ki Moon at the UN? Will a single one of
the shrieky, beggarly, in-keepers of the Indian mainstream media consensus, rise up for once, look at
themselves in the mirror and call a spade a f--king spade and not wriggle out and have another raucousand belligerant debate with equal time for social fascists, right wing nut jobs, retired police chiefs and
bleating civil rights activists ? Will they for onece state that " this is a criminal dispensation of justice
by a right wing politically motivated confabulation aided and abetted by a consensus that is assisted bythe government, surreptitiously? "
Will a single politician resign in disgust and walk away to join a mass protest? Will the princelingRahul Gandhi, who proclaimed himself as a tribal warrior even utter a single word? And what about
80-year old Narayan Sanyal, a leader of the Maoists, and Piyush Guha the businessman from Bengal,will they be forgotten? Like several other Maoist writers and journalists who were "encountered" to
death or simply denied medical assistance while under police custody until they bled and coughed to
death?
India is truly a numbing and diseased maggot-ridden corpse that sells itself to the world with the anticsand the avaricious intent of the 30 business houses that control India and the 300 million mall rats who
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]8/8/2019 Hindu on Jail Term
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dance and prance to their own elevator music.India's laws are a mockery of international jurisprudence,
from the time of the Defence of India Rules, (DIR) to the PVAA (Prevention of Violent Activists Act),
the MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) and all the new concoctions in vogue today--all
would collapse by any international standard. Detention without trail has never survived in any systemin the world, when challenged. They make their intermittent existence palpable when in the hands of a
malevolent executive.
India behaves like the US is behaving today, reinvoking the 1917 Espionage Act against Assange, whenyour pants and skirt are down to you ankle, caught in monumental acts of illegality.
India has not risen. India is rotting.
