Rights activists await ruling on Binayak Sen

RAIPUR - Rights activists from across India are gathering here as a court is set to rule Friday in the case involving Binayak Sen, who spent two years in jail for alleged links with Maoists.

Security has been stepped up in and around the district and sessions court where judge B.P. Varma will give his verdict on Sen, who faces charges like treason and waging war against the state.

The judgment assumes significance for right activists who say that authorities trapped Sen, a doctor and a civil rights activist, on trumped up charges.

“We are very eagerly awaiting the judgment,” Rajendra K. Sail, a former president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), told IANS.

Another rights activist, Gautam Bandopadhyay, said: “Whatever the judgment, we (activists) will continue to raise voice against rights abuses by government.”

Sen was picked up in May 2007 from Bilaspur town under the stringent Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act for alleged links with Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal. He was released in May 2009 on the order of the Supreme Court.

The court here had completed its hearing last week. It began the trial in May 2008 and examined 97 witnesses.

The prosecution claimed that Sen was very much involved in establishing an urban network for the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist). The defence denied the charges.

Human rights activists in India and abroad as well as doctors from the US and other countries urged the Indian government to free him, calling his detention unjust and violative of human rights.