The life sentence handed down to Binayak Sen by a Chhattisgarh trial court on Friday is so over the top and outrageous that it calls into question the fundamentals of the Indian justice system. The trial judge shocked the conscience of the nation by finding the eminent doctor and rights activist guilty of sedition and conspiring to wage war against the state under Sections 120(B) and 124(A) of the Indian...

Rights activist Binayak Sen, accused of links with Maoists, was Friday convicted for sedition and conspiracy by a Chhattisgarh court and arrested soon after, leaving his family and fellow activists shaken and disappointed. District and Sessions Court judge B.P. Varma found Sen guilty on a variety of counts such as under 124 A and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code and also under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act. Sen,...

In an almost identical case, the accused was given a total of 11 years in jail A couple of years for Union Carbide bosses and a life sentence for Sen: Arundhati Roy Scandalous, says Justice Rajinder Sachar As a crush of lawyers, reporters and policemen awaited the sentencing of Dr. Binayak Sen, Pijush Guha, and Narayan Sanyal on the ground floor of the Raipur Sessions Court, an almost identical case was under way...

Last month, a group calling itself the “Maa Danteshwari Swabhimani Adivasi Manch” circulated a pamphlet in Dantewada district, threatening to kill anyone perceived to be a supporter of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). The pamphlet accused Dantewada's oldest journalist N.R.K. Pillai, Anil Mishra, Chhattisgarh Correspondent for Tehelka, and Yashwant Yadav, District Secretary of the Chhattisgarh Working Journalists' Union, of working for the Maoists and threatened them with dire circumstances. The...

Manish Kunjam , a former MLA and president of All India Adivasi Mahasabha, the tribal front of the CPI, is the only politician in Bastar who continues to organise Adivasis peacefully for their constitutional rights. Jyoti Punwani spoke to Kunjam about doing politics while facing police repression and Naxal violence: After a long gap, Chhattisgarh recently witnessed two massiveAdivasirallies.What were your demands? The Chhattisgarh government is running under the writ...