Apex court hearing on Binayak Sen’s bail put off till Friday (Lead)
April 11th, 2011 - 8:14 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, April 11 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday adjourned till Friday the bail plea of human rights activist Binayak Sen, sentenced to life imprisonment for sedition and links with the Maoists, after the Chhattisgarh government sought two days’ time to brief its lawyer.
An apex court bench of Justice H.S. Bedi and Justice C.K. Prasad passed the order on the Chhattisgarh government’s plea.
Sen, 61, has challenged the Feb 10 order of the Chhattisgarh High Court rejecting his bail plea. Sen is at present lodged in a jail in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur.
He was sentenced by the trial court Dec 24, 2010 for sedition. He was accused of acting as a courier between Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal and Kolkata-based businessman Piyush Guha, both of whom have also been jailed for lifee.
The trial court verdict against Sen was slammed by human rights activists in India and abroad, saying he was victimised by Chhattisgarh’s Bharatiya Janata Party government for highlighting human rights abuses.
The state government, in its reply to Sen’s petition in the high court, said he “has the same ideology as that of CPI-Maoist (Communist Party of India-Maoist) and he is addressed as a comrade by hardcore Naxalites (Maoists)”.
“He (Binayak Sen) provides active support and co-ordinates in spreading the base of CPI-Maoist in the country. For hardcore Naxalites, he arranges safe hideouts by arranging house on rent, helps open bank account, helps in getting employment to conceal identity and provides employment by incorporating trusts.”
The Chhattisgarh government said that Sen was helping the Maoists in building “urban network and sympathizers”. He “harboured hardcore Naxalites…rather than informing the police”, it said.
The reply said that apart from providing logistic support, Sen exchanged information with the Maoists and helped in propagating their ideology in Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa.
The petitioner had “deep links” with hardcore Maoists, including Narayan Sanyal, Prafull Jha, Malti, Shankar Singh and Amita Shrivastava, the state government said.
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Tags: apex court, bail plea, bharatiya janata party, communist party of india, court bench, court hearing, court verdict, hideouts, human rights abuses, human rights activist, human rights activists, life imprisonment, logistic support, maoist, maoists, party government, piyush, sedition, urban network, west bengal