Describing the conviction of rights activist Binayak Sen by a trial court as “a travesty of justice,” social activist Swami Agnivesh expressed the hope here on Sunday that the Supreme Court would take notice of it and rescind the order.
Demanding that Dr. Sen be set free, Swami Agnivesh pointed out that the authorities of the Raipur Central Jail, who were present when he met Narayan Sanyal, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), had also deposed in court and said that Dr. Sen did not act as a courier of letters.
Speaking on the issue of the death of Maoist leader Azad, who was killed in an encounter with the Andhra Pradesh police last year, Swami Agnivesh said that he had filed a writ petition in Supreme Court seeking a judicial probe into the issue.
“The UPA government will have to establish their credentials about how sincere they are about a dialogue with the Maoists,” he said, adding that he had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi who had assured a judicial probe into Azad's death, but nothing had materialised.
The Maoists were ready for talks and a ceasefire with the Centre if their demand for a judicial enquiry into the death of Azad was met, he said, adding that the progress of the peace process depended on it. Reiterating the allegation that Azad was apprehended from Nagpur before being killed in a fake encounter at Adilabad on June 26, Swami Agnivesh said that he had stopped sending letters to the Maoist leadership and was communicating with them through the media.
“Azad was killed when he was carrying a letter written by me and another person Sudhakar Reddy alias Srikant was caught when traced through my letter,” he said.
Fearing that the coming Assembly election in West Bengal would be the “bloodiest ever,” Swami Agnivesh said that he had met several eminent persons of civil society here and would try to meet Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and appeal to them to restrain their party workers from engaging in violence.
