Civil rights activist Binayak Sen, Naxal ideologue Narayan Sanyal and Kolkata-based businessman Pijush Guha were on Friday sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of sedition by a Raipur court. They were charged with treason for aiding and abetting Maoist insurgency in Chhattisgarh.
Additional district and sessions judge K.P. Verma pronounced the verdict in a jampacked court room here, holding them guilty under Sections 124 A (sedition) and 120 B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and various sections of the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Sen, 60, was present in court along with Sanyal, 70, and Guha, 35, when the single-judge bench court delivered the verdict.
Sen sobbed after hearing the judgment. “There is no suggestion of warlike activity anywhere in the judgment copy,” Sen told reporters while being bundled into a police van. His wife Illena Sen, who, along with her two daughters, was waiting outside the court, expressed shock and dismay. “It is completely irrational. What can be more shocking than that a person who has spent almost his lifetime working for the poor is now convicted of sedition? We will contest the verdict in a higher court,” she said.