Binayak Sen walks out of Raipur jail

RAIPUR: Human rights activist Binayak Sen, undergoing life imprisonment on charges of sedition and links with outlawed Maoists, on Monday walked out of a jail here, three days after the Supreme Court granted him bail, IANS reported.

Earlier in the day, setting conditions for his release on bail, the Raipur sessions court has asked civil rights activist Dr Binayak Sen to surrender his passport and furnish bail and personal bonds amounting to one lakh rupees.

Judge B P Varma said Binayak Sen should appear in the court whenever asked and he should not leave the country.

Sen was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of sedition by a Raipur court on December 24. The apex court granted him bail on Friday, saying the evidence on record proved there is no sedition case against Sen.

The apex court also observed that the mere possession of Naxal literature does not make a person a Naxalite, guilty of sedition, as one who possesses Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography cannot call himself a Gandhian.

Sen, 61, had challenged a Chhattisgarh high court order that rejected his bail plea on February 10. He sought bail contending that the trial court had erred in convicting him without substantial evidence.

A Raipur sessions court had on December 24 last year held Sen and three other people guilty of treason and for waging war against the state. He was also found guilty of sedition.