Fwd: URGENT request for help to sign a petition supporting Dr. Binayak Sen

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amanpreet Singh Bal <asinghbal@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 10:23 PM
Subject: URGENT request for help to sign a petition supporting Dr. Binayak Sen
To:

Dear friend,

 

I request you to click on below link and sign the petition to show your support for Dr. Binayak Sen. Dr. Sen, a paediatrician, public health professional and civil liberties activist has been working in tribal region of India for almost three decades and earlier today was sentenced to life in jail for sedition. It is travesty of justice that people like Dr. Sen are put behind bars under the disguise of national unity/integrity by relying on trumped up charges. Beside working in the tribal region with his wife, Dr. Sen is national vice-President of PUCL India(People's Union for Civil Liberties). For those of us who have been monitoring situation regarding denial of justice to Sikhs in India and 1984 pogroms in India, it's worth noting that it was PUCL and PUDL (People's Union for Democratic Rights ) that came out with a detailed report titled WHO ARE GUILTY in Nov. 1984. I'm of the firm belief that it's our moral obligation to stand up for Dr. Sen and show our courage. Please help distribute this petition to your friends and let's join the campaign to free Dr. Binayak Sen.

 

Sincerely, 

Amanpreet Singh Bal, Toronto, Canada

 

http://www.petitiononline.com/sen2010/petition.html

 

To:  The President of India, Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi

We, the undersigned are shocked at the conviction of well-known public health doctor and human rights worker Dr Binayak Sen by a Raipur Sessions Court on charges of 'sedition' and 'waging war against the Indian State'. The conviction carries a sentence of life imprisonment, a drastic and completely unjust fate, to be handed out to one India's finest social activists.
We call upon the higher Indian judiciary to uphold principles of law, justice and the rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution and undo the severe damage done to the reputation of the judiciary itself through the Raipur court's flawed judgment.

The charges against Dr Sen, of allegedly aiding outlawed Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh, have not been corroborated by any of the witnesses or evidence produced in court so far. On the contrary there have been numerous instances of the prosecution resorting to use of fabricated documents and contradictory testimonies to press its case.

We further believe that the charges against Dr Sen, made under draconian 'anti-terrorist' laws, are trumped up and intended to 'punish' him for his outspoken criticism of the Chhattisgarh government for its human rights violations against its own tribal populations. Dr Sen, a heart patient, has already spent over two years in prison from May 2007 to May 2009 and was released on bail by the Indian Supreme Court.

That the world's largest democratic country cannot tolerate criticism and non-violent human rights activism is a matter of shame to Indian citizens everywhere and this attitude of intolerance needs to be roundly condemned. Such low quality of justice, routinely delivered in our courts, is indeed itself a threat to Indian democracy.

Not only should Dr Sen be released immediately from imprisonment and charges withdrawn, there needs to be a thorough inquiry against all those who have framed him so maliciously. We also demand adequate compensation to Dr Sen for being deprived of his basic freedoms and his family for being subjected to the most inhumane mental torture and persecution.

Sincerely,

--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/