Condemn Assaults on Democracy: Raipur Sessions Court Convicts Dr. Binayak Sen, Sentences Him to Life Imprisonment!

On December 24^th, the Raipur Sessions Court delivered a shocking and shameful verdict convicting noted human rights activist and peoples’ doctor Binayak Sen for ‘sedition’. And on the basis of this charge, the court has sentenced the 58-year old Dr. Sen to life imprisonment, which is the maximum possible punishment for sedition. This judgment came at the end of a so-called trial in the court of law – a trial that was nothing but a farce in the name of justice.

For many years now, Dr. Sen has been targeted by the Chhattisgarh government for being one of the most vocal voices against the state-sponsored genocide under the garb of Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh. We have not forgotten that prior to this ‘trial’ in the Raipur Sessions Court (which was clearly politically motivated), Dr. Sen was imprisoned in jail for more than two years on the basis of extremely dubious ‘evidence’. He was repeatedly deemed a ‘security threat’ by the Chhattisgarh government, and was even denied bail not just by the courts in Chhattisgarh, but by the Supreme Court. It was only after a prolonged national campaign exposing the real intensions behind his arrest and imprisonment – a campaign that was supported by several rights activists and doctors from all over the world – that he was finally released on bail in May 2009. And now, the Chhattisgarh government has succeeded in sending Dr. Sen back to jail, this time for life.

It is to be noted that throughout Dr. Sen’s trial, the prosecution failed miserably failed to show any evidence linking the highly respected paediatrician and human rights activist with the Maoists. Any pieces of ‘evidence’ were lacking the most basic proof of authenticity. Firstly, the most important ‘evidence’ presented by the prosecution is a letter allegedly seized during a raid on Dr. Sen’s house. This letter does not contain signatures of Dr. Sen himself, and is not included in the list of items noted in the seizure memo. For the Court to overlook such overwhelming proof of faked evidence, and instead to convict on the basis of such faked evidence, is nothing but a travesty of justice.

During the trial, the prosecution more than once showed itself in a ridiculous light. On one occasion, the prosecution displayed its rank ignorance when it argued that Dr. Sen’s wife Ilina Sen’s conversation with the ‘ISI’ showed her links to Pakistani intelligence – whereas it was in fact a conversation with Walter Fernandes of the Indian Social Institute, a well-known institute in Delhi. For the court to give credence to a prosecution case that was reduced to such farcical and absurd arguments is a shame.

AISA strongly condemns this verdict, and calls upon the progressive and democratic forces in the country to launch strong protests against this state-sponsored witch-hunt. Not just this particular verdict, but the Chhattisgarh government’s concerted attack on each and every voice protesting against state repression, forcible displacement and corporate land grab has to be unequivocally protested.