Northeast group wants case against Binayak Sen withdrawn

AGARTALA - A rights group from northeast India Wednesday urged the central and Chhattisgarh governments to withdraw the sedition cases against jailed human rights activist Binayak Sen at once to ensure his immediate release.

“To stifle the voice of the human rights movement and simultaneous protest against state and non-state sponsored terrorism, Sen has been implicated in a false case,” Tripura Human Rights Organisation (THRO) general secretary Purushuttam Roy Barman told reporters here.

“Implication of Sen in a case involving treason and sedition and his subsequent conviction and sentence is a frontal attack on the human rights movement in India,” the senior lawyer said.

According to Roy Barman, the 59-year-old rights activist was held guilty of sedition by a Chhattisgarh court not on the basis of evidence but on surmises and conjectures.

“Sen, for the past 40 years, has been rendering self-less service for the cause of the poor and down-trodden people of Chhattisgarh,” he said.

The organisation is hopeful that the “injustice committed” to Sen, a renowned paediatrician and all-India vice-president of People’s Union for Civil Liberties, would get justice in the higher court.