Judge Sen’s case with enlightened reason: Academicians

NEW DELHI - Expressing shock at the Chhattisgarh court’s judgment on rights activist and doctor Binayak Sen, academicians across the country and abroad issued a statement Monday condemning the life sentence and said that his case must be judged with “enlightened reason”.

Raipur district and sessions court Dec 24 sentenced Sen to life imprisonment for sedition and links with outlawed Maoists.

The statement has been signed by professors of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi University, Jadavpur University, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cambridge of United States, Tata Institute of Social Science and Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, among others.

The signatories also included authors and activists.

“Doctor Binayak Sen has never resorted to violence against any other person, never incited anyone else to resort to violence, never entered into any conspiracy against the constitutional order of the country and never entered into regular service of any organisation that was involved in any such conspiracy, for furthering its cause,” the statement said.

“Yet he has been handed down this sentence whose savagery is unbelievable. Such an action on the part of the state in the name of preserving the constitutional order will only serve to undermine that constitutional order itself,” it added.

“The damage done by this shocking verdict to our constitutional order must be undone. The higher judiciary of the country must hear his appeal expeditiously, must grant him immediate bail till the end of the appeal process, and must judge his case with enlightened reason,” the statement said.