Binayak Sen: Free at last

Ritam Banati

This certainly seems to be something out of a Bollywood blockbuster. The hero is a doctor in a remote poor district of South Bastar in Chhatisgarh and at a nominal fee is rendering services there. He tends to the wounds of a jailed Naxal leader and gets accused of acting as a courier between him and a local trader because he goes on leave after that. Thus he is believed to be absconding!

Accusations are hurled at him of conniving with the Naxals. And he is jailed under the provisions of the Chhatisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005 and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967.

Dr Sen has made it very clear that he is against Naxalite violence. However, he has also vociferously stated that he is equally against state-sponsored atrocities which the government considers justified while fighting Naxal aggression.

Good Samaritans like Sen are caught in the firing line and land up in jail. Whereas others who are actually responsible for killings, like Maoists, or for excesses, like the state government sometimes, roam scot-free.

Dr Binayak Sen’s release was due pressure from media as well as the vigorous campaign across the globe by human rights groups and Nobel laureates that secured him bail by the Supreme Court after a wait of two tiring years.

Anyway, the pertinent issue raised here is the existence of the loopholes in our criminal justice system. It is because of such flaws that the untarnished get caught due to no fault of theirs only because they dare to raise their voice against the corrupt and the latter in an effort to shield their guilt try and implicate them in fallacious charges, Dr Sen being one such unfortunate example.

Binayak Sen- the winner of Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights-was the first winner from South Asia, who is credited with setting up Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha’s Shaheed hospital for the poor.

His release must not be mistaken as a victory as this is a bail on furnishing of a personal bond. Also state Chief Minister Raman Singh has categorically remarked that the granting of bail did not mean that the trial against Sen had ended.

The apex court which had earlier rejected his bail plea, but granted it today, however said that in case he’s convicted after trial he can be taken into custody.

A foremost question that the media has raised is why was he not given bail earlier if his crime was not proved and was by no means non-bailable? Besides, if there are still grounds for further inquiry since he has not been sentenced yet and trial is still on then why was not the bail granted earlier as per laws?

This unquestionably raises a serious doubt in the manner of his arrest as also the circumstances surrounding it.

Arguments running in his favour state that he has been falsely blamed as he being the national vice-president of Chhattisgrah-based Peoples Union of Civil Liberties had called for a probe into the killing of innocent adivasis in Santoshpur on March 31, 2007. They were alleged to have been Maoists. And the bodies had been exhumed from a mass grave. Government-sponsored private militia-the Salwa Judum was apparently the culprit.

Reports at the time had said that even though the state government had not denied that some cops might have been involved, yet it had not carried on an investigation to punish the guilty.

After his release, Binayak Sen apprehends a threat to his life from the state government. In his words, “I think I have a danger from the Chhattisgarh government though I have not received any threat.”

We may end up paying a heavy price if the people of this country continue to maintain a stoic silence. For it may snuff out hope that comes in the form of someone like Dr. Binayak Sen, who without any selfish motive of fame or fortune willingly decides to devote his life to taking care of people we would perhaps never even care to meet in our lives. Kudos also to his wife Ilina, who stands like a rock behind him, as also to all those people, who successfully campaigned for his release.

Ritam Banati

This certainly seems to be something out of a Bollywood blockbuster. The hero is a doctor in a remote poor district of South Bastar in Chhatisgarh and at a nominal fee is rendering services there. He tends to the wounds of a jailed Naxal leader and gets accused of acting as a courier between him and a local trader because he goes on leave after that. Thus he is believed to be absconding!

Accusations are hurled at him of conniving with the Naxals. And he is jailed under the provisions of the Chhatisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005 and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967.

Dr Sen has made it very clear that he is against Naxalite violence. However, he has also vociferously stated that he is equally against state-sponsored atrocities which the government considers justified while fighting Naxal aggression.

Good Samaritans like Sen are caught in the firing line and land up in jail. Whereas others who are actually responsible for killings, like Maoists, or for excesses, like the state government sometimes, roam scot-free.

Dr Binayak Sen’s release was due pressure from media as well as the vigorous campaign across the globe by human rights groups and Nobel laureates that secured him bail by the Supreme Court after a wait of two tiring years.

Anyway, the pertinent issue raised here is the existence of the loopholes in our criminal justice system. It is because of such flaws that the untarnished get caught due to no fault of theirs only because they dare to raise their voice against the corrupt and the latter in an effort to shield their guilt try and implicate them in fallacious charges, Dr Sen being one such unfortunate example.

Binayak Sen- the winner of Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights-was the first winner from South Asia, who is credited with setting up Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha’s Shaheed hospital for the poor.

His release must not be mistaken as a victory as this is a bail on furnishing of a personal bond. Also state Chief Minister Raman Singh has categorically remarked that the granting of bail did not mean that the trial against Sen had ended.

The apex court which had earlier rejected his bail plea, but granted it today, however said that in case he’s convicted after trial he can be taken into custody.

A foremost question that the media has raised is why was he not given bail earlier if his crime was not proved and was by no means non-bailable? Besides, if there are still grounds for further inquiry since he has not been sentenced yet and trial is still on then why was not the bail granted earlier as per laws?

This unquestionably raises a serious doubt in the manner of his arrest as also the circumstances surrounding it.

Arguments running in his favour state that he has been falsely blamed as he being the national vice-president of Chhattisgrah-based Peoples Union of Civil Liberties had called for a probe into the killing of innocent adivasis in Santoshpur on March 31, 2007. They were alleged to have been Maoists. And the bodies had been exhumed from a mass grave. Government-sponsored private militia-the Salwa Judum was apparently the culprit.

Reports at the time had said that even though the state government had not denied that some cops might have been involved, yet it had not carried on an investigation to punish the guilty.

After his release, Binayak Sen apprehends a threat to his life from the state government. In his words, “I think I have a danger from the Chhattisgarh government though I have not received any threat.”

We may end up paying a heavy price if the people of this country continue to maintain a stoic silence. For it may snuff out hope that comes in the form of someone like Dr. Binayak Sen, who without any selfish motive of fame or fortune willingly decides to devote his life to taking care of people we would perhaps never even care to meet in our lives. Kudos also to his wife Ilina, who stands like a rock behind him, as also to all those people, who successfully campaigned for his release.