Professor Illina Sen, wife of human rights activist Binayak Sen, said on Friday she was not planning to leave the country, and that the couple did not need a “certificate of patriotism” from anyone. Dr. Sen was recently convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court in Chhattisgarh on the charge of sedition. Ms. Sen, who was here to attend a conference organised by the Indian Association for Women's Studies,...

Condemning the conviction of physician and human rights activist Binayak Sen as a travesty of justice, more than 250 physicians, medical professionals and students here on Tuesday demanded his immediate and unconditional release. Dr. Sen along with Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal and city-based businessman Pijush Guha was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 24 by a Raipur court on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit sedition under Section 124(a) of IPC. Assembling...

The Raipur sessions court judgment against civil liberties defender and health activist Binayak Sen has provoked outrage. His two-year long detention had drawn protests from the world over. The only substantial charge against Sen is that he passed on three letters from Narayan Sanyal, an undertrial, suspected -- but not yet proved -- to be a Maoist, to the Maoist leadership. It takes several leaps of imagination, or nasty prejudice, to...

Describing the conviction of rights activist Binayak Senby 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...

The sentencing of Dr. Binayak Sen involves unverified charges, and unreasonable and unconstitutional findings. The constitutional validity of the charges of sedition and conspiracy that were used to implicate rights activists such as Binayak Sen merely for their anti-establishment political thoughts needs to be challenged. The action ridicules the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression. The sections of the Indian Penal Code that deal with “conspiracy to wage war against the government”...