NEW DELHI: India's Supreme Court granted bail Friday to a doctor and leading rights activist sentenced to life in prison on charges of helping Maoist insurgents. Announcing their decision, the two-judge bench also cast doubt on Sen's conviction for sedition, which drew widespread international condemnation. Binayak Sen was jailed for life in December after prosecutors successfully argued that he helped Maoist guerrillas create an urban network and acted as go-between for a left-wing leader and a businessman. Academics and civil rights organisations had condemned the conviction, with Amnesty International adopting him as a prisoner of conscience. Sen is appealing and the Supreme Court decision to grant bail overturns the refusal by a lower court to do so in February. The doctor is currently jailed in Raipur in the central state of Chhattisgarh. His release may take several days as Friday's ruling must be taken up by the lower court which will set the bail conditions. Before his arrest, Sen had been running health clinics and training health workers in tribal communities in Chhattisgarh -- a stronghold of India's Maoist movement. During Friday's hearing the Supreme Court bench questioned elements of the sedition case against Sen, particularly the relevance of pro-Maoist booklets found in his possession. “If (Mahatma) Gandhi's autobiography is found in someone's house, does that make him a Gandhian?” queried Justice C.K. Prasad. And Justice H.S. Bedi observed that even if Sen were a Maoist sympathiser, “this does not make him guilty of sedition.” Sen's lawyer, S.K. Farhan, said the court ruling offered hope for the upcoming appeal. – Agence France
