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Dr. Binayak Sen – pediatrician, public health professional and civil liberties activist – was arrested by the police on 14th May 2007 at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, in Central India, for allegedly supporting an outlawed Maoist group. Having gone to the police station at the request of the local Superintendent of Police to record a statement, Dr. Sen was instead placed under arrest without any charges being filed or even articulated. He is still being held in prison two years later. The government has yet to produce any credible evidence of any wrongdoing, but has nonetheless charged and indicted Dr. Sen with multiple offenses under two draconian ‘national security’ laws—the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) 2004. The trigger for Dr. Sen’s arrest and the reason for his continued incarceration appears to be the government’s displeasure at his work among the adivasi (indigenous tribal) communities, especially the documentation and publication by Sen of detailed reports on the violations of their civil and human rights over the years by a nexus of the administration and resource extraction industries, and his exposure of the reign of terror unleashed in Chhattisgarh by paramilitary forces armed and supported by the state. Dr. Sen is that rarest of rare doctors in India – one who has chosen to live and work amongst the poorest and the most deprived. A class valedictorian from one of the premier medical colleges in India, a M.D. in Pediatrics, and one of the youngest members of the faculty at a leading university, Dr. Sen chose to work for three decades at a community-based health centre in one of the poorest regions of India, providing health care and social services to under-served communities of indigenous peoples. |
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