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Rights activist held in Ch'garh for Naxal links
A senior human rights activist has been arrested in Chhattisgarh on charges of alleged Maoist connection, police said on Tuesday.
A senior human rights activist has been arrested in Chhattisgarh on charges of alleged Maoist connection, police said on Tuesday.
After a weeklong search, police picked up Binayak Sen, national vice-president, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), late on Monday from Bilaspur town, 110 km north from Raipur, when the activist was trying to consult his lawyer to evade possible police arrest.
Sen was arrested under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005, police said.
The activist's arrest followed closely that of Maoist cadre Piyush Guha, held in Raipur last week, after the latter allegedly revealed Sen's links with Maoist ultras, especially his regular interaction with a top jailed Maoist leader and passing on information and letters.
"Police will seek his remand on Tuesday and will interrogate him for his long association with Maoist radicals," a senior police officer said in Raipur.
Sources say that police have strong evidence how Sen met Narayan Sanyal, the lone living contemporary of Maoist movement founder Charu Mazumdar, in Raipur central jail, and passed on some vital information and exchanged letters.
The 70-year-old ailing Sanyal has been put at Raipur central jail since he was arrested here in December 2005. Sanyal is facing dozens of cases including masterminding the October 2003 attack on former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and the jailbreak at Bihar's Jehanabad in November 2005.
