Dr. Binayak Sen, a pediatrician by profession , human rights activist and also the Vice-President of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 24, 2010, after having been “found guilty” by Shri B.P.Verma, a sessions judge of Raipur in the State of Chattisgarh in India, of the charge of sedition by colluding with Maoists to establish a network to fight the state. Dr. Sen had been accused by the police of acting as a courier for Naxal ideologue Narayan Sanyal, who was in jail, by carrying his messages and letters to the underground Maoists.

Although I have been seeing lots of generous support for and against Binayak Sen’s verdict on various social networking sites, it was Kiran Kumar’s (@KiranKS) blog that urged me to pen down my thoughts here. He and his “saffron gang” on twitter had virtually challenged me to “reply” to his “open questions” on twitter. This was a long post,  so I have split the answers part to another blog post here and leaving my primary thoughts to this post. .

First things first, I have to tell this to clarify a few things:

a) I am a proud Indian and have the highest regard and esteem for our greatest democracy and judiciary of our nation.

b) I haven’t met Dr. Binayak Sen ever, neither am I related to him /his family or his actions or affiliations and my interpretations are based on what I have read and heard on the media.

c) I don’t intend to say anything with the intention of the contempt of court but my views stand for as an ordinary citizen of India who has the highest confidence on the freedom of speech of the country.

d) I am neither an office bearer nor a member of any political party but have always voted for the Congress party who led the freedom struggle for the nation, because of which I now have the freedom to express my thoughts and views, tweet or blog about it. Support for Congress doesn’t mean that I am involved in or endorse on 2GScam, Adharsh scam, CWG Scam and whatsoever.

e) I love my country India and am a tax payer.

f) I deeply condemn the violence and non-state actions of the Naxals and Maoists and I am no way related with them or endorse / support their inhuman activities or idealogies. In short, I am also NOT a Naxal sympathizer.

g) My belief in my religion doesn’t have anything to do for my support to Dr. Sen. I am not even sure whether he is Christian or not, as alleged by some on twitter.

h) I haven’t read the complete judgment written in Hindi and I am waiting for the complete translation. This is based on the partial translation.

Here are some of the questions and thoughts on the case and verdict against Dr. Binayak Sen , that haunts me ..

a) The primary piece of evidence was as flimsy as that defies any logic and common sense of common citizens like me.  Is the mere carrying of a few letters that warranted life sentence for Dr. Sen? So wWhat does the letters contains ? The postcard penned by Sanyal, which was used as evidence to arrest Sen in May 2007, was signed and sealed by the jail authorities.  The prosecution alleged that Sen had passed on letters from Narayan Sanyal,  whom he used to meet in Raipur Central Jail, to Piyush Guha, to be sent “out”.  These letters were allegedly found on Guha when he was arrested.  However, jailers testified that there was no way Sanyal could have handed over anything to Sen in jail because Sanyal’s visitors were not only searched before and after meeting him, but all Sanyal’s meetings with visitors were in presence of jail officials. Not only could the jailors see  Sen and Sanyal during the meeting, they could also hear their conversation, possibly in Hindu too, Aren’t they co-conspirators too?

b)The prosecution used references to Dr. Sen as “Comrade” as proof of his alleged Maoist links. The police allegedly found some “Naxal material” from Dr.Sen’s house.  I have Quran & Gita at my house, Does that make me a practicising Muslim or Hindu ? Did they at least find a gun or AK47 from his house ? Sanjay Dutt buys AK47 from terrorists & gangsters and still roams around in his posh cars .. Incredible India !

Ideally, all the material seized from Dr.Sen’s house was supposed to be sealed in the presence of witnesses, before being taken away for custody. While prosecution claimed it was all done , defense alleged it was’nt so.  The defense lawyer Surendra Singh then asked for permission of the court to play a video recording of the entire seizure at Dr.Sen’s house, shot by a professional videographer hired by Sen’s wife Elina. The videographer told the court that he had seen the police take away the seized material in an open bag. However, the judge B P Verma refused to allow the video to be screened at that stage,  after the special public prosecutor challenged the authenticity of the CD. The judge still allowed the SPP to play another compact disc video, which the prosecution claimed, showing Sen talking to Naxalites in the jungle. This video’s photographer, Ajay T G told the court that he had filmed Sen & advocate Holaram Prajapati talking to adivasis during a 2004 PUCL’s investigation into the killing of 3 adivasis in a forest village.

c) One of prosecution’s main “evidence” aganist Dr.Sen, was a letter dated 1 December 2005, allegedly written by Naxalites thanking him for his services in Chhattisgarh and hoping for similar services in Orissa.  This computer printout , unsigned letter, made a sudden appearance during prosecution witness trials. Unlike the other documents which were seized from the house, this letter had neither Sen’s signature nor that of the investigating officer, B B Rajpoot. It had instead only the signatures of the two witnesses the police claim were supposedly present during the search at Dr.Sen’s house . It is neither mentioned in the list of documents seized from Sen’s house.  When asked why it had neither Rajpoot’s nor Sen’s signature, this was the explanation given to the court : “Either we forgot, or this paper got overlooked because it was stuck to some other document seized during the search”. Then how come the witnesses signed it?

d) So everybody asks why did Sen met Sanyal 33 times in prision?  Didn’t L K Advani and Arun Jaitley meet Amit Shah, the powerful ex-minister accused of being the mastermind in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, in jail? Didn’t Advani convey his anxiety to the prime minister when Sadhvi Pragya, accused of terrorism, who was in jail? Sanyal and his relatives had approached Dr Sen, a doctor, to help him get treatment for fibromatosis on his hands. And Dr Sen didn’t just walk in to meet Sanyal in a secret hiding place. Every time he met him, he got permission as PUCL general secretary, on the PUCL letterhead. These applications for permission must be part of the court record.

d)  Sify asks “A child molester is sentenced to a year and a half in jail twenty years after his victim killed herself, and gets out on bail within four months. A convicted terrorist is fed biriyani, while the hangman finishes up his backlog. A man, who is responsible for the continuing suffering of millions of victims 26 years after a gas tragedy, is allowed to lead a cosy life in the United States of America. A man who cost the government lakhs of crores is raided by the CBI after ample notice that would’ve given him time to get rid of incriminating evidence. Yet, in this very same nation, a human rights activist is almost summarily sentenced to life imprisonment – the maximum penalty for most rapists and murderers.”

e)  Can you tell me why Sen was being initially jailed for more than a year without trial, until the Supreme court intervened ? Sen was kept in solitary confinement, during March 15-April 11, 2008 , like a hard core terrorist or serial killer.  Prison authorities claim it is for his security. Hilarious ! Times of India gives us this timeline of how Binayak Sen’s trial so far.  “ May 4, 2009: Supreme Court issues notice to Chhattisgarh government questioning Sen’s detention and demanding its response in two weeks.”, “May 25: Sen released on bail by Supreme Courts vacation bench of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Deepak Verma.” Doesn’t the Supreme Court believe that he is a “dreaded terrorist” who is risky to be released on bail? “Late August-early September, 2010: Supreme Court directs Chhattisgarh government to complete presenting its evidence against Sen by end-September.” Was the Chhattisgarh government sitting on the case to deny justice to Dr.Sen? ; If I may be allowed to ask.  I am glad that the honourable Supreme Court is closely monitoring the case.  And let the case come to the highest seat of justice in our country and I am sure truth will definitely prevail.

f) Ilina Sen asks the world “ One who has worked for the poor of the country for 30 years, if that person is found guilty of sedition activities and conspiracy, when gangsters and scamsters are walking free, I think it’s a scandalous situation“.

g) Having “convicted” Dr Binayak Sen on sedition charges on flimsy grounds, India lost its moral rights to question the detention of Liu Xiaobo in China and and Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma or other human right violations elsewhere.

h) Just because Dr.Sen gets support from Arundhati Roy or  Ram Jethmalani doesn’t mean that Dr.Sen is bad , IMHO Arundhati Roy is a big noise but no bite lady, who intentionally jumps into every possible controversy for whatsoever reasons, oh yea she wrote a book and won some award for it. Think of the hundreds of other people from different walks of life, who have supported Dr. Sen.

i) Get the facts of Dr.Sen’s life and struggles correct before you assume and pronounce judgement yourself.  A paediatric doctor by profession — a gold medallist, in fact, from the prestigious Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore — Binayak Sen, 56, has worked for more than 30 years with the tribal poor in Chhattisgarh, battling malnutrition, tuberculosis, and the lethal falciparum malaria strain rampant in the area. As a young man — star pupil with the world at his feet — he had turned his back on the many rich career options before him to take a job at a rural medical centre in Hoshangabad run by Quakers, where he was greatly influenced by Marjorie Sykes, Gandhi’s biographer. Ideas of public health, sustainable development and a just society obsessed him. Walking the slums of Vellore as a graduate, he had understood very early that there is a crucial link between livelihood, living conditions and health. Bolstering this with a degree in social medicine from JNU, Delhi, he moved from Hoshangabad to Chhattisgarh in 1981, to work with Shankar Guha Niyogi, the legendary mine workers’ unionist. Read more of this story here.

j) Dr Sen was also awarded the prestigious Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights for his services to poor and tribal communities and his unwavering commitment to civil liberties and human rights. His efforts in public health programmes helped to bring down the infant mortality rate in the state and deaths caused by diarrhoea and dehydration. Do you think such a doctor and humanitarian will ever support killing of innocent lives?

k) Dr. Sen could have stayed back and applied for anticipatory bail to prevent his arrest . He and others in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties knew that the police were looking to implicate them ever since they started exposing the Salwa Judum, the vigilante force armed by the Chattisgarh state government to take on the Maoists and to terrorise Adivasis into leaving their villages.  A report of a joint fact-finding team comprising five human rights organisations on the Salwa Judum came out in December 2005. The report was released in Raipur by Dr Sen as general secretary of PUCL and leader of the team. Next month, then Chhattisgarh Director Gerneral of Police O P Rathore declared to the press, ‘Hum PUCL ko dekh lenge (we will take care of PUCL)‘.

m) More than one and half centuries ago, the British introduced a law in India framed to check rebellious natives. In 2010 this law has been used by an independent India to check activists who question government policy. Section 124A of the Indian penal code was introduced in 1870 by the British to deal with sedition. It was later used to convict Mahatma Gandhi , the father of our very nation. The man convicted under the same section in 2010 is, like Gandhi, again a man of peace and compassion for his fellow human beings.

l) The most interesting “revelation” by the special public prosecutor was the mention of the Indian Social Institute as Pakistan’s ISI. Can’t even laugh at the pathetic state of knowledge of those who “handle” this case !

m) Binayak Sen was charged with Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, applicable only in Chhattisgarh and not the whole of India. CSPSA is itself controversial in nature and its definition of “unlawful activities” is accused of imperiling the free exercise of fundamental freedoms set out under Article 19 of the Constitution and this legislation was meant to suppress all political dissent in the state. Maoist groups were already banned under 2004 amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and claim that this law is needed for better action against Naxals & Maoists is blatantly false. The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) had already expressed its reservations about the Act, and said it may become a potential instrument to throttle the right to free speech, legitimate dissent, and trample the fundamental rights enshrined in Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution.

Well this is not the end of the story for this great human… Ordinary citizens still have trust in the highest seat of judiciary but till then the painful struggle of Dr.Sen continues… I should agree to at least one thing which Kiran said on his blog  “Satyam Eva Jayate =  Truth Shall Always Prevail! “ and so shall be…

Update: On April 15,2011, The Supreme Court of India granted bail to Binayak Sen. During the hearing, the bench observed that “we are a democratic country. He may be a sympathiser (of Naxalites) but it did not make him guilty of sedition. He is a sympathiser. Nothing beyond that,” the bench further said, perusing the affidavit filed by the Chhattisgarh government opposing his bail.