Can appeal against Binayak Sen verdict: P Chidambaram

Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said that if people felt that the life sentence dished out to human rights activist and physician Binayak Sen was unfair then they were free to appeal against the verdict.

Last month, the Raipur Sessions Court in Chhattisgarh convicted Dr. Binayak Sen for “sedition and waging war against the state” and sentenced him to life imprisonment for supporting the Maoist rebels.

Support for freeing Sen poured in from various groups in India and abroad, including international human rights watchdog Amnesty International, which criticized the Indian system for the conviction.

On Tuesday, Chidambaram said, “Dr. Sen has been convicted by a court of law. Many persons have said that the trial court judgement was unsatisfactory; it may be, but only way to correct it is by filing an appeal.”

He also said that he had personally spoken to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, on Sen’s request, to ensure that trials in the case were being held regularly instead of only once a week or only on a few days in a week.

The minister was speaking on the sidelines of releasing the report card for the Home Ministry here on Tuesday, where he said the “dramatic change” in the situation in the North East and the decline of violence during the past year was the highlight of 2010.

“Twenty security personnel, 94 civilians and 247 militants lost their lives during the year. While this is a matter of regret and concern, I may point out that this is the lowest level of violence witnessed in many years,” he said.

This year, except Manipur and Assam most of the states in the region have shown “remarkable improvement” during the year with minimal deaths and notable progress towards dialogues between insurgent groups and the governments, said the Home Minister.

Speaking on Jammu & Kashmir, he said that the situation was improving until the beginning of June last year but the subsequent three month period of agitation was an “unfortunate and deeply regrettable chapter”.

Lauding the work of the all-party parliamentary delegation and the appointment of independent interlocutors, Chidambaram said that there has been a significant improvement in the law and order situation.

“In particular, the interlocutors have been able to change the discourse and have been able to persuade a number of stakeholders to offer suggestions for a political solution,” he said.

On terrorism, the minister said that barring the two blots ? the Pune bombing in February and the Varanasi blast in December ? authorities made good progress in building build capacity and neutralised a number of terror modules.

“India is no more ? but no less ? vulnerable than any other country. Our security lies in maintaining constant vigil, augmenting intelligence gathering and taking pre-emptive action,” he said.

Chidambaram also said that the looming Maoist threat in a number of threats continue to remain “a matter of grave concern”.

He said the attacks and incidents in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh were low points during the year and at least 713 civilians were killed in 2010 (as against 591 in 2009) by Left Wing extremists.

The minister noted that the casualties in security forces came down to 285 from 317 in 2009 and 2010 also saw 171 insurgents neutralised (as against 219 in 2009), adding that “the Naxalites have not only spurned the offer of talks but have also escalated the conflict”.

With the Congress government taking quite a few hits this year over crime rates in Delhi, Chidambaram said that the figures still are significantly lower than those in 1999.

He said that policing in the capital has “improved significantly” with a new police stations, more personnel and better infrastructure.

“I would request the people of Delhi to support their police force. In a few days, I shall address the media together with the Commissioner of Police,” CHidambaram said.