Dec 30, 2010 - By Antara Dev Sen, DNA

Last week, at his sentencing, Dr Binayak Sen asked, “What is Section 124-A?” The judge replied: “Rajdroh.”

The human rights activist, head of the state PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberties) and a doctor dedicated to the neglected poor in tribal areas, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for sedition. The judgement was based primarily on fabricated evidence, fake witnesses and contradictory statements by the police.

How can ‘rajdroh’ or rebelling against the monarch be a crime in a democracy?

LET US UNITEDLY FIGHT TO REPEAL ALL FASCIST DRACONIAN LAWS INCLUDING UAPA AND THE CHHATTISGARH SPECIAL PUBLIC SECURITY ACT!

The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) condemns unequivocally the murder of justice in the case of Dr. Binayak Sen, a people’s doctor and one of the first civil libertarians to expose the state sponsored Salwa Judum that was undertaken by the BJP government on the tribal people in Chhattisgarh and ably supported by the Congress which is the opposition party in the state.

Beatings and electric shocks inflicted on hundreds of civilians detained in Kashmir, US diplomats in Delhi told by ICRC

US officials had evidence of widespread torture by Indian police and security forces and were secretly briefed by Red Cross staff about the systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir, according to leaked diplomatic cables released tonight. The dispatches, obtained by website WikiLeaks, reveal that US diplomats in Delhi were briefed in 2005 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the use of electrocution, beatings and sexual humiliation against hundreds of detainees.

Indian Express news service - Thu Dec 16 2010 - New Delhi:

BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who is leading a party delegation to Israel, has said the Israeli homeland security services could explore ways to cooperate with NDA-led state governments facing Maoist menace. Gadkari — who is accompanied by senior BJP leaders, including Vasundhara Raje and Ramlal among others — made this suggestion to the Israeli agencies after a presentation was made to the visiting delegation.

41 organizations supported by 72 individuals have raised a demand for justice in the Shopian case in an open letter as they have shown that there are grounds to believe that the conclusions drawn by the CBI full of lacunae, lapses and biased. They have demanded fresh investigations. We call on you to join them.

Support and express solidarity with the Political Prisoners who are on an Indefinite Hunger Strike in Medinipur Central Jail from 10^th December(Human Rights Day) 2010

Nearly 150 political prisoners-mostly under trail--incarcerated in the Medinipur Central Jail-which the government calls 'Correctional Home'-will start hunger strike from 10th December 2010 on the Human Rights Day for an indefinite period-true to the long  tradition of hunger strikes organized by political prisoners in Medinipur as also other jails of West Bengal and outside in near and distant past.

The West Bengal police are no exception when it comes to acting with impunity. The most recent case is the abduction of political dissidents such as the Maoists, keeping them under detention illegally without producing them in court within 24 hours of arrest by trampling underfoot all constitutional norms. The cases in mention are those of the Maoist leaders Sudip Chongdar aka “Kanchan”, reported to be the West Bengal State Committee Secretary of the CPI(Maoist), Barun Sur aka “Bidyut”, secretary of Bhagirathi Teesta Regional Committee, Anil Ghosh aka “Ajoyda” and Kalpana Maity aka “Anu”