Hyderabad, March 14: Demanding immediate release of Dr. Binayak Sen unconditionally, who has been sentenced to life term under Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code, speakers and advocates at a seminar on sedition, demanded the government to repeal Section 124 A from the Indian Penal Code.
Free Binayak Sen Campaign, Hyderabad, organised a seminar here today on ‘Law of treason and sedition’ with a specific reference to the demand for repeal of Section 124 A from the IPC.
Delivering the inaugural address on ‘’Dr. Binayak Sen: Innocent victim of unjust sedition law,’’ P M Bhargava, a renowned scientist, felt that Binayak Sen was a victim of vendetta of the Chhattisgarh government for his bold and principled opposition to the state sponsored vigilante operation Salwa Judum, which has been held unacceptable even by the Supreme Court.
The miscarriage of justice reflected in the judgment of Raipur additional district and sessions judge B P Verma sentencing Binayak Sen to life imprisonment under charges of sedition and two others Pijush Guha and Narayan Sanyal for having links with Naxals, he said. “The Indian government should drop sedition cases against Binayak Sen and others,’’ he added.
Writer Nikhileswar vent his anger on the Chhattisgarh government, which pursued sedition charges against peaceful activists, despite a Supreme Court ruling that prosecution under sedition law requires incitement to violence, which was not proved in either case. The Supreme Court has long recognised that sedition law cannot be used for this purpose and the Parliament should amend or repeal the law to reflect this, he said.
“Dr. Binayak Sen, who exposed the misdeeds and unkept promises of government turned out to be inconvenient for the government. To prevent Sen, Sanyal and Guha and others like them from becoming an embarrassment, the Chhattisgarh government used Section 124 (A).
There has been a widespread public protest across the nation against the judgment on the grounds that the evidence is dubious and the conviction was a complete miscarriage of justice,’’ he said.
Mihir Desai, a Mumbai-based advocate, said that even as Section 124 A has been existing in the IPC, which was implemented by the Britishers on freedom fighters during the Independence movement, it was never highlighted by the media until Binayak Sen was sentenced for life under this Section.
The court sentenced Binayak Sen to life imprisonment based on faulty evidence that he was known to be sympathetic to Naxalites, who were waging war against the Chhattisgarh government.
He acted as an intermediary between arrested Naxalite Narayan Sanyal and the party.
–Agencies