The CPI(M) on Wednesday said the life sentence awarded to rights activist Binayak Sen, convicted by a court in Raipur for sedition, was “a grave miscarriage of justice”. “The evidence presented at the trial by the prosecution was so flimsy and concocted that it is surprising that such a judicial verdict has been given,” party general secretary Prakash Karat said. He said the verdict also pointed to the dangers of having...

He had been defending political dissenters since the late 1960s Eminent civil rights activist and prominent lawyer K.G. Kannabiran (81) passed away in Hyderabad after a brief illness on Thursday evening. He is survived by wife Vasanta, two daughters and a son. The last rites were performed later in the evening in the presence of family members as per his wish. Born in 1929, Mr. Kannabiran obtained master's degree in Economics and a...

Indian law affords Binayak Sen one automatic right to appeal, and another at the discretion of the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, given the visible disparity between the quality of allegations against him and the repercussions, the judgment is sure to provoke a national and international outcry. One thousand three hundred and twenty days after he was first arrested, Binayak Sen has been sentenced to life imprisonment for sedition against the Indian...

Prominent lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Tuesday offered to defend rights activist Binayak Sen, who was sentenced by a trial court to life imprisonment for sedition, in a higher judiciary. He also said he did not find it contradictory to fight the case and be a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP at the same time. “No party line says that lawyers should not appear for some people,” Mr. Jethmalani said. He said...

Maoist leader was himself charged with sedition only as an after-thought Narayan Sanyal is a 74-year-old man with white hair parted to one side and fibromatosis in both hands. His arrest memo notes that he wears dentures, has spots on his body and smokes cigarettes. “My health is not going well, arthritis is a new thing catching up, age is telling,” he writes in a letter addressed to a ‘Dear...