Sen gets life for knowing,helping Naxalites

Also cited as evidence is the recovery from Sen of newspaper clippings on the Naxal movement and a magazine with interviews of Naxal leaders Ganapati and Kishenji. The verdict is silent on which specific Naxal act or conspiracy Sen was involved in.

The verdicts reasons for holding Sen and Sanyal and Kolkata businessman Piyush Guha guilty of sedition:

In paragraphs 54 and 55,the judgment cites the statement of one S R Thakur,the then deputy jailor at Raipur jail,giving the dates of 12 meetings that Sen had with Sanyal in jail. Thakur says that Sen claimed to be a relative of Sanyal and wanted to discuss household matters. Jailor P K S Chauhan (Para 56) gives another set of 19 dates on which Sen met Sanyal,again posing as a relative.

In Para 36,Inspector Sher Singh Bande told the court that the Chhuria police station,adjoining the Maharashtra border,often hosts state committee and central committee meetings of Naxalite leaders and that Sen and his wife Ilina Sen used to attend these meetings.

Inspector B S Jagrit and Sub-Inspector Ravindra Upadhaya (Paras 12 to 15) mention the arrest of Piyush Guha from near Raipur railway station. Their statements talk about the recovery from Guha of Naxal literature,Rs 49,000 in cash and three letters written by Sanyal to be delivered to people in Kolkata. The police officers claim that Guha told them the letters had been handed to them by Sen.

In Para 94,the order states what the contents of these letters,two in English and one in Bengali,were. One,addressed to Dear P expresses happiness over the successful completion of the ninth Congress (an apparent reference to a Naxalite meeting in January 2007) and talks about the need to rope in more organised and unorganised workers in their agitation. That letter also talks about Maoist groups making their way to Parliament in Nepal.

The other letter in English,addressed to Dear friend V alleges that a jailed comrade (not clear whether the mention is about Sanyal or someone else) is not being helped. The letter says,But this is not good. There is no reference to the contents of the third letter.

In Para 45,the order mentions the police statement on the search conducted at Sens house on May 19,2007. The police claimed to have recovered Maoist literature,a special issue of Peoples March magazine containing interviews of Naxalite leaders Ganapati and Kishen(ji),a four-page handwritten document in English containing an article World Globing (sic) of Republic of Present State and many other important things,and an article on Globalisation and the Indian service industry. A letter from Naxalite leader Madan Lal Barkare addressed to Comrade Binayak Sen and a postcard from Sanyal were also recovered. There is no mention of what was written in the letter or the postcard. Newspaper clippings containing news related to Naxal activities,a book on Salwa Judum,one computer CPU and eight CDs were also recovered by the police.

n In Para 59,the order cites the statement of Deepak Chaubey,one time landlord of Narayan Sanyal. Chaubey says Sen accompanied Sanyal posing as a relative when he came looking for the house and that he had given the house to Sanyal because Sen was a respectable citizen of the town. In the following pages,the statements of some other witnesses are mentioned in which Sen and his wife Ilina are said to have helped hardcore Naxalites Shanker Singh and Amita Srivastava in getting jobs,rented accommodation and bank accounts.

n After this,the judge observes: Based on the statements of witnesses,it is proved that Ilina Sen and Binayak Sen had contacts with and knew hardcore Naxalites Shanker Singh and Amita Srivastava. It is through their help that hardcore Naxalites Shanker Singh and Amita Srivastava had opened their bank accounts and obtained a job and house on rent.