The Supreme Court of India granted bail to tribal healthcare pioneer and civil rights activist Binayak Sen on April 15, 2011. Binayak Sen had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a lower court of Chhatisgarh on charges of sedition and having links with Maoist rebels.
The Supreme Court held that the evidence on record has no proves on sedition case against Mr. Sen. In the worst case he could be termed an active sympathiser with the Naxalites. The Supreme Court bench comprising justices H S Bedi and C K Prasad observed that mere possession of Naxal literature does not make a person a Naxalite, guilty of sedition. It is just as one who possesses Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography cannot call himself a Gandhian.
Chhatisgarh’s stance on the civil rights activist
Supreme Court ordered the jail authorities in Raipur to release Sen. It held that the trial court of Chhatisgarh would set the conditions of the bail. Opposing Sen's bail plea, the Chhatisgarh government had filed an affidavit holding that Mr. Sen has deep links with hardcore Naxalites. It held that Mr. Sen provided active support and coordination in spreading the base of CPI-Maoists in the country. Apart from providing logistic support, he exchanged information and material directly and indirectly with the Naxalites in the areas of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa and propagates Naxal ideology.
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