The Chhattisgarh High Court at Bilaspur shall hear a petition for the suspension of sentence and grant of bail of celebrated human rights activist and pediatrician Dr. Binayak Sen on Monday. Exactly a month ago, on December 24 last year, Dr. Sen, Kolkata businessman Pijush Guha and alleged Maoist ideologue, Narayan Sanyal, were convicted of participating in a criminal conspiracy to commit sedition and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Additional District and Sessions Court at Raipur.
It is believed that Dr. Sen shall be represented by Ram Jethmalani, one of India’s most eminent criminal lawyers. In statements made to television channels after the Sen verdict, Mr. Jethmalani said it would be a honour to defend Dr. Sen.
Dr. Sen was arrested in May 2007 in Bilaspur on suspicions of acting as a courier between Mr. Guha and Mr. Sanyal. He was jailed for two years before the Supreme Court granted him in 2009. His trial has been closely followed in India and abroad and was marked by allegations that the police had planted crucial evidence and coached key witnesses.
Dr. Sen has maintained that he was being persecuted for his opposition to the Salwa Judum – a State sponsored anti-Maoist movement that was launched in 2005 and was marked by numerous instances of violence.
His conviction and sentencing have elicited widespread outrage and condemnation by academics, Nobel laureates, activists and certain sections in the political establishment.
