Rights activist Binayak Sen, accused of links with Maoists, was Friday convicted for sedition and conspiracy by a Chhattisgarh court and arrested soon after, leaving his family and fellow activists shaken and disappointed.
District and sessions court judge B.P. Varma found Mr Sen guilty on a variety of counts such as under 124 A and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code and also under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act.
Mr Sen, a medical doctor, had been out on bail since in 2009 "I lost my voice, please leave me," his distraught brother Dipankar Sen, in tears, told mediapersons at the court complex.
Kavita Srivastava, the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) national general secretary, reacted angrily. "This is a fabricated case by the Chattisgarh government and police. It is hard to believe the judgment.
We will go for appeal," she said. Said Rajendra K. Sail, former PUCL President: "It is injustice, totally disappointing. There was no evidence against Mr Sen.
We will appeal." Sen was arrested in 2007 from Bilaspur for alleged links with Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal but was released in May 2009 at the behest of the Supreme Court. The case against continued even as Maoist guerrillas stepped up attacks on security forces in Chhattisgarh, killing scores of them.