The Curious Case of Binayak Sen

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‘I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.’ –Louis LasagnaIn May 2007, paediatrician, public health specialist and civil rights activist Binayak Sen was arrested, accused ofacting as a courier between jailed Naxalite leader Narayan Sanyal and businessman Piyush Guha. In December 2010, a Sessions Court in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, found all three guilty of sedition and cooperating with terrorist organizations. The judge sentenced them to life imprisonment. This triggered an outpouring of outrage across human rights and citizens’ groups in India and abroad.Award-winning author Dilip D’Souza casts an unflinching look at the entire case as it unfolded. Through his clinical dissection of the court evidence, charge sheets and judgment, D’Souza gives an insight into the often flawed mechanism of justice in India. While analysing the roles of the judiciary and executive in a democracy, he also looks at the poor state of rural health care, which contributed to the rise of the Naxalite movement and thus, arguably, to Sen’s imprisonment.Uncompromisingly honest and hard-hitting, The Curious Case of Binayak Sen throws light on issues of state power and individual freedom, issues which too often get obscured by shrill headlines and state propaganda.