Binayak Sen

Dr Binayak Sen is a paediatrician, public health specialist and national Vice-President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) based in Chhattisgarh state, India. Dr Sen is noted for extending health care to the poorest people, monitoring the health and nutrition status of the people of Chhattisgarh, and defending the rights of indigenous tribal people. In May 2007, he was detained in connection with his human rights work, raising global concern about his welfare. [1]

In a statement immediately preceding his arrest, Dr. Sen said, "For the past several years, we are seeing all over India - and as part of that in the state of Chhattisgarh as well - a concerted programme to expropriate from the poorest people in the Indian nation, their access to essentials, common property resources and to natural resources including land and water... The campaign called the Salwa Judoom in Chhattisgarh is a part of this process in which hundreds of villages have been denuded of the people living in them and hundreds of people - men and women - have been killed."

Noam Chomsky headed a list of prominent persons issuing a Press Statement on 16 June 2007. This stated: "Dr Sen has been detained under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2006 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2004 on charges that are completely baseless. Both these extraordinary laws have been criticized by numerous civil rights groups for being extremely vague and subjective in what is deemed unlawful, and for giving arbitrary powers to the State to silence all manner of dissent." [2]

In addition to the information below, further details about Dr. Sen's incarceration are available from the PUCL website : [3].

Achievements in health care

Dr Sen helped to set up the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha's Shaheed Hospital, a pioneering health programme for the region. The hospital is owned and operated by a workers' organization for the benefit of all, regardless of caste or any other background.

Dr Sen is an advisor to Jan Swasthya Sahyog, a health care organization committed to developing a low-cost, effective, community health programme in the tribal and rural areas of Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh.

He was also a member of the state advisory committee set up to pilot the community based health worker programme across Chhattisgarh, later well-known as the Mitanin programme.

He also gives his services to a weekly clinic in a tribal community.

Dr Sen was the recipient in 2004 of the Paul Harrison award [4] for a lifetime of service to the rural poor. This award is given annually by the prestigious Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, to one of its alumni.

Human rights and peace

Dr Sen is the National Vice-President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and General Secretary of its Chhattisgarh unit.

In his PUCL capacity, he has helped to organize numerous fact finding missions into human rights violations. These have included:

• extra-judicial killings,
• prisoners likely to be at risk of torture.

He participated in investigations which drew attention to severe human rights violations including murder of unarmed civilians, by the police and local government-backed "Salwa Judoom" (sometimes spelt "Salva Judum") - an anti-Maoist movement consisting of armed civilians. [5]

Dr. Sen has been noted for his advocacy of peaceful methods. Talking to reporter Purnima S. Tripathi of the magazine Frontline in March 2006, he said of the violence in Chhattisgarh: "These senseless killings are unfortunate and must stop and both sides should sit down to talk and find a way to peace." (Frontline, Volume 23, Issue 05 : March 11 - 24, 2006).

In a statement immediately preceding his arrest, Dr. Sen said, "For the past several years, we are seeing all over India - and as part of that in the state of Chhattisgarh as well - a concerted programme to expropriate from the poorest people in the Indian nation, their access to essentials, common property resources and to natural resources including land and water... The campaign called the Salwa Judoom in Chhattisgarh is a part of this process in which hundreds of villages have been denuded of the people living in them and hundreds of people - men and women - have been killed. Government-armed vigilantes have been deployed and the people who have been protesting against such moves and trying to bring before the world the reality of these campaigns - human rights workers like myself - have also been targeted through state action against them. At the present moment the workers of the Chhattisgarh PUCL (People's Union for Civil Liberties) the Chhattisgarh branch, of which I am General Secretary, have particularly become the target of such state action; and I, along with several of my colleagues, are being targeted by the Chhattisgarh state in the form of punitive action, illegal imprisonment. And all these measures are being taken especially under the aegis of the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act."

Dr. Sen's arrest

On 14 May 2007, Dr. Sen was arrested in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh state, India. Dr. Sen and the People's Union for Civil Liberties had helped draw attention to the unlawful killing - on 31 March 2007 - of several adivasis [indigenous tribal people] in Santoshpur, Chhattisgarh. Upon orders from the State Human Rights Commission, bodies of the victims were exhumed from a mass grave in the week immediately preceding Dr. Sen's arrest. The Director General of Police in Chhattisgarh also ordered a police probe into the incident on 5 May 2007. According to a police official monitoring the investigation, autopsy reports confirmed that three of the victims were hit by bullets at close range on the head and waist while others were axed to death. [6] This account was corroborated by a videotaped interview with the Santoshpur "sarpanch" [elected village leader] [7](in Hindi). The police official also told the Indo-Asian News Service on 9 May 2007: "It's certain that some police personnel crossed the limits and killed innocent villagers branding them as Maoist militants ... Now the government has to decide whether the cops involved in killings should be arrested or not." [8]

"The government will not arrest the policemen involved in the killings," Chhattisgarh Home Minister Ramvichar Netam told the Indo-Asian News Service on 9 May 2007. [9]

Dr. Sen - who had helped focus attention on these and other unlawful killings - was detained on 14 May 2007. This came after week-long accusations by the police about Dr. Sen absconding; and of passing letters from Narayan Sanyal, a detained 'Naxalite' leader who he had been treating medically in the Raipur jail, to Pijush Guha an alleged Naxalite under detention since 1 May. Dr. Sen, following his arrest, told the media that this charge had no basis since his meetings with prisoners were undertaken openly, with the permission of the Deputy Superintendent of Police and under the close supervision of jail authorities. Dr. Sen also pointed out that contrary to allegations of "absconding", he had been on a holiday (planned long in advance) and had returned as soon as he heard about the allegations.

Dr. Sen was detained under provisions of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2006 (CSPSA), and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967), which was amended in 2004 to include key aspects of the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA), 2002. The POTA was repealed in 2004 following widespread criticism of abuse and human rights violations. The CSPSA and UAPA allow for arbitrary detention without any right of appeal. [10]

On 16 May 2007, Amnesty International issued a call to the Government of Chhattisgarh to "immediately release Dr. Sen unless he is charged with a recognizable criminal offence and take urgent steps to end the harassment of the other human rights defenders in the state." [11]

On 18 May 2007, Dr. Sen appeared in court and asked to be shown the First Information Report, Complaint and the Grounds on which he was being detained. None were shown to him. The police request for transferring him from judicial remand into police custody was rejected by the court. He remained in judicial remand.

On 19 May 2007, the police searched Dr. Sen's house. According to independent observers present during the search and local press reports, no incriminating evidence was found. A complete and detailed inventory of items taken by the police was released by the PUCL. No banned items were found. [12] (- in Hindi).

Items which police have described to the press as incriminating evidence turned out to be a postcard from the jailed Narayan Sanyal dated 3.6.2006, regarding the prisoner's health as well as his legal case, duly signed by the jail authorities and carrying the official jail seal.

On 22 May 2007, Dr. Sen appeared in court again and was sent on judicial remand to Raipur Central Jail until 5 June, 2007. The Court passed an order that Dr. Sen's computer (now in police custody), would be examined by a government expert in the presence of the District Head of the National Informatics Centre, plus a lawyer - with knowledge of computers - representing Dr Sen. Dr Sen protested against attempts to handcuff him, and the court ordered that he should not be handcuffed. Dr Sen's lawyers then moved a bail application.

On 28 May 2007, about 6,000 indigenous people and others demonstrated in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, against the arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen and against the special act under which he was arrested - Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005 (CSPSA).

On 31 May 2007, the PUCL held a public meeting in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Speakers demanded that the state immediately repeal the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005 under which Dr. Binayak Sen was arrested. [13]

Dr. Sen's lawyers told reporters that the Chhattisgarh government "has on some excuse or another been refusing to show them the First Information Report or any other document". [14]

On 7 June 2007, a submission from Dr. Binayak Sen's wife, Dr. Ilina Sen, to the National Human Rights Commission [15] states that no "chargesheet" against Dr. Binayak Sen has been filed so far. The submission states that Dr. Binayak and Dr. Ilina Sen's work "has always been in the public sphere and completely overboard [above board] for the last 20 years and more." It protests "the malafide intent of the state of Chhattisgarh in first identifying its victims, and then seeking to build up concocted cases against them." The submission apprehends a campaign of "media villification" against Dr. Ilina Sen. A special investigating team is stated to have visited the home of Dr. Ilina Sen's mother in Kolkata, enquiring about Dr. Ilina's antecedents.

On 12 June 2007, in an interview with ABC Radio National (Australia), the noted Indian commentator P. Sainath said, "You have a number of studies, a number of reports and investigations done by the People's Union for Civil Liberties, of which Binayak is a leading member, on "fake encounters". The word "encounter" has a very special meaning in India. It means the police kill someone, he may be unarmed, he may be tied to a chair. Then he posthumously becomes a Maoist. That's immediately conferred on you in death. A number of studies on these encounters and on fake killings and on a vigilante war that the government is waging on the Maoists, is what ... reports on those: that's what got Binayak Sen into trouble... The charges brought against him - it's very interesting. The police now have sort of outsourced the smear campaign to the media. So the media bring incredible charges against him which the police then do not repeat in the court." [16]

Noam Chomsky and several other prominent figures issued a Press Statement dated 16 June 2007 alleging that "The fake encounters, rapes, burning of villages and displacement of adivasis [indigenous tribals] in tens of thousands and consequent loss of livelihoods have been extensively chronicled by several independent investigations. Dr Sen's arrest is clearly an attempt to intimidate PUCL and other democratic voices that have been speaking out against human rights violations in the state." [17]

On 20 June 2007 a delegation from the PUCL met the Chief Minister (CM) of Chhattisgarh state. They objected to Dr. Sen - as a human rights defender, office-bearer of the People's Union for Civil Liberties and medical doctor - being made a co-accused in crimes alleged to be committed by the jailed extremist Narayan Sanyal. The CM raised the issue of Dr. Sen's meetings with the jailed Narayan Sanyal. The delegation explained that these visits were for the "medical treatment of Narayan Sanyal and also regarding his legal case. Most important, all these visits took place in the Raipur jail, following procedures laid down in the jail manual." [18] The delegation also explained to the CM that "human rights organizations represent a middle ground which make it possible for opposing forces to dialogue with each other... if human rights defenders are actively persecuted, then it leads to a situation where the state and opposing forces have no scope for dialogue and both have to take to the path of confrontation."

The PUCL delegation raised objections with the Chief Minister about the analysis of Dr. Sen's computer in the absence of Dr. Sen’s advocate and the independent court-appointed witness, raising the possibility of attempts to manufacture false evidence against Dr. Sen. [19] The court had ordered on 22 May 2007 that both these observers should be present during the examination of Dr. Sen's computer.

Responding to the delegation’s view that the Chief Minister is being misled by the police, who appear to be determined to fabricate a case against Dr. Sen, the Chief Minister is reported to have assured them that he would look into the matter.

Meanwhile, the Central Forensic Laboratory in Hyderabad has given a "clean" certificate to Dr. Binayak Sen's computer which was seized during the search of his house. No incriminating evidence was found in the computer.

On 31 August 2007 the Supreme Court of India issued notice to the Chhattisgarh government on a petition seeking Dr. Sen's release from alleged illegal detention. A bench of Justices Ashok Bhan and V S Sirpurkar sought response from the Chhattisgarh government after senior counsel Soli Sorabjee claimed that Dr. Sen was illegally detained since May 14 on fabricated charges of supporting Naxalites. [20]

last entry on: 19 November 2024

Worldwide condemnation of arrest

Protests against Dr Sen's arrest have been led by prominent personalities such as Noam Chomsky, Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, Magsaysay Prize winner Aruna Roy, Booker Prize winner Arundathi Roy, retired judge Rajinder Sachar of the Delhi High Court, film maker Shyam Benegal and many eminent medical professors and scientists in India, the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia and beyond.

Many Indian human rights groups have protested the arrest. A list can be found at InfochangeIndia.org

On 24 May 2007, Amnesty International issued a Public Statement entitled: "India: Chattisgarh government detains human rights defender, refuses to arrest police officials suspected of involvement in unlawful killings of adivasis [indigenous tribes-people]." [21]

On 7 June 2007, the British House of Commons published an Early Day Motion entitled "Arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen" supported by several Members of Parliament across party lines, including Diane Abbott (Labour), Peter Bottomley (Conservative), John Hemming (Liberal Democrat), Dai Davies (Independent, Wales), Mike Weir (Scottish NP), among others. (EDM no. 1615 dated 5th June 2007) Hansard Report.

It begins: "That this House is concerned at the arbitrary arrest of the human rights activist and General Secretary of the Chhattisgarh unit of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Dr Binayak Sen, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh; notes with concern that this arrest has taken place in the aftermath of the alleged involvement by the police in the unlawful killing of 12 adivasis or tribal people". It ends by calling for Dr. Sen's immediate release and an end to the harassment of the other human rights defenders in the state.

On 9 June 2007, the British Medical Journal published an article about Dr. Sen's arrest. It states that Ramesh Gopalakrishnan, of Amnesty International, offered the following comment to BMJ about the supposed charges: "These offences allow sweeping interpretations of criminal intent. Activists in India are arrested all the time on such charges, which give wide, arbitrary powers to police."

The same BMJ article reports a protest, outside the Indian High Commission in London, whose organiser is quoted as saying, "Dr Sen is a champion of peace and fair play and an internationally respected medical doctor who has devoted his whole life to peaceful service of the poorest people. He should be released immediately." BMJ 2007;334:1184-1185 (9 June)

References

Zachariah, A and Bhattacharji, S. Arrest of paediatrician and human rights activist Binayak Sen. The Lancet. 2007; 369(9580):2155

See also

• People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)

External links

• CNN-IBN 30 minutes report
• News Item on Dr Sen's Arrest
• The PUCL's Condemnation of the arrest
• Amnesty International's Public Statement
• Savebinayak.org website
• Website for campaign to free Dr. Binayak Sen