---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Release Binayak <releasebina...@gmail.com> Date: Apr 10, 2009 12:31 PM Subject: ‘My father is not a Naxal’- Pranhita Sen To:
http://www.binayaksen.net/ ‘My father is not a Naxal’- Pranhita Sen< http://www.binayaksen.net/2009/04/%e2%80%98my-father-is-not-a-naxal%e2%80%99-mumbai-mirror/ > My Father is not a naxal, says Pranhita Sen, daughter of Dr Binayak Sen who has been languishing in jail for 23 months, despite pleas from 22 Nobel Laureates for his release Mumbai Mirror, April 2009 By Priyanka Borpujari For 23 months now, Dr Binayak Sen has been languishing in Raipur Jail. He was charged for having alleged links with Maoists, and since his arrest, 22 Nobel Laureates have written to the president and the prime minister urging them of his innocence. However, his 24-year-old daughter Pranhita – who sought refuge in Mumbai a year ago – says her top concern at the moment is her father’s deteriorating health. Dr Binayak Sen developed angina pain in January and at a court hearing on March 27, he asserted the need to see a doctor. “The judge ordered for treatment with a cardiologist, Dr Ashish Malhotra. That doctor referred him to CMC Vellore and said that he may need a bypass surgery,” said Pranhita. The medical report was sent to the judge, but the SP of Chhattisgarh apparently scolded the jailor for taking Dr Sen to Dr Malhotra. “The police are ready to disrespect the court, so it will still take time for Baba to be treated. Documents have to be passed from the judge to the government, which will be most unwilling to help him out. I will have to be there to ensure that he is treated before his condition worsens.” Pranhita, who is studying film at XIC, insists her father has been falsely incriminated and that she is ready to take on the government and the bureaucracy to ensure he is released soon. “When Baba was arrested, I couldn’t afford to cry because he had bestowed a lot of responsibilities upon me. He said I had to take care of the family.” As the national vice president of the Chhattisgarh-based People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Dr Sen would conduct investigations into many allegedly fake encounters which took place, especially after the ‘holy hunt’ or Salwa Judum began in 2005. On May 14, 2007, he was detained for his alleged association with Maoist Narayan Sanyal, thus violating the provisions of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967. “One-hundred-and-fifty constables and 25 officers searched our home in Raipur just days after his arrest. They wanted to convey that they had caught a Maoist. They took away any book that had the word ‘red’ written in it. They even confiscated my sister’s Algebra notebook stating that it was some code language. “In the first charge sheet, all 84 witnesses turned hostile. The police would bring only such witnesses who would go against my father and thus declare him a Maoist,” said Pranhita, who plans on making a film on her father’s life when she gets her diploma later this year. After her father’s arrest, Pranhita decided to stay back in Raipur to follow the case, while her mother Illina – who is a professor of General Studies at the Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University in Wardha and runs the NGO Rupantar in Raipur – had to return to Wardha. However, Pranhita was soon spied on and had to leave the state, and she decided to come to Mumbai. Today, her mother and her 18-year-old sister travel from Wardha to Raipur every week to meet Dr Sen. “We meet him just for half an hour every week and the jailor is always party to our conversations. Sometimes they try to stop us from meeting him. Then I have to get down to abusing them.” The family suspects they are constantly under surveillance and that their phones are tapped, so their conversations have been reduced to a bare minimum. As a result, Pranhita is not always updated about what is being done for her father’s release. Pranhita believes the media in Chhattisgarh has been bought out. “People – the national media included – are afraid to talk about the issue because it involves ‘Maoists’. But only if the media talks about it will people know that an innocent man is languishing in jail. He has never befriended any Maoist. He has only been sympathetic towards the villagers who are discriminated by caste. We learnt from the bureaucratic circles said that the police would try hard not to release Baba because doing such a thing would go against the police morale,” she alleges. Pranhita, who had been accompanying her father on his trips to remote villages in Chattisgarh ever since she was 12 years old, misses her Baba, but continues to remain optimistic. “I am proud of Baba and wouldn’t swap my life with anyone else’s.” Case background 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. He is the winner of the 10th annual Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights, and the first winner from India and South Asia. In May 2007, he was detained on May 14, 2007 for allegedly violating the provisions of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967. In December 2007, his bail petition was rejected by the Supreme Court of India. Twenty-two Nobel laureates from around the world have written to the President and PM and Chhattisgarh state authorities. On May 16, 2007, Amnesty International issued a call to the Government of Chhattisgarh to immediately Dr Sen. What is Salwa Judum Salwa Judum is an anti-Naxalite movement in Chattisgarh which started in 2005 as a “civilian movement among the tribals of the region”, and later evolved into a militia as a counter-insurgency strategy in the state to bring the area dominated by Naxalites back under government control. Chhattisgarh state has over the years trained a number of Special Police Officers (SPOs) from the tribals, who are part of Salwa Judum in the state. With its formation, the state witnessed a marked rise in retaliatory Naxalite action. As a result, in 2008, Chhattisgarh along with neighbouring Jharkhand accounted for over 65 per cent of the total Naxal violence in the country. -- Visit http://www.binayaksen.net/ and raipursatyagraha.wordpress.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
