Dr Binayak Sen freed: SC says sympathy is not sedition

The Supreme Court today granted bail to tribal healthcare pioneer and civil rights activist Binayak Sen, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a lower court on charges of sedition and having links with Maoist rebels. 

The apex court said that the evidence on record proves no sedition case against Sen. At worst he could be termed an active sympathiser with the Naxalites. "No case of sedition is made out. He is just a sympathiser, nothing beyond that," the court said.

Saying ''we are a democratic country'', a bench comprising justices H S Bedi and C K Prasad also observed that mere possession of Naxal literature does not make a person a Naxalite, guilty of sedition, just as one who possesses Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography cannot call himself a Gandhian. 

While ordering jail authorities in Raipur, where he has been incarcerated, to release Sen, the apex court said that the trial court would set the conditions of the bail.

Opposing Sen's bail plea, the Chhatisgarh government had filed an affidavit saying Sen has deep links with hardcore Naxalites. 

''He (Sen) provides active support and coordination in spreading the base of CPI-Maoists in the country. Apart from providing logistic support, he exchanges 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," the affidavit said.