The wife of a leading Indian human rights activist who has been jailed for life for helping Maoist rebels has said she may seek political asylum, reports BBC online Tuesday.
Ilina Sen, wife of Dr Binayak Sen, said that she and her family were “not feeling safe in India” after her husband’s conviction.
Last month Dr Sen was found guilty of carrying messages and setting up bank accounts for the rebels.
Activists say the evidence against Dr Sen was “manufactured”. Human rights group Amnesty International has said his trial violated international standards.
US author Professor Noam Chomsky, Indian historian Prof Romila Thapar and dozens of well-known Indian academics have said in a statement that are “deeply shocked by the judgment of a Chhattisgarh [central Indian state] court holding Dr Sen to be guilty of sedition, and sentencing him to life imprisonment”.
Mrs Sen, who is a social worker and runs an NGO, told the BBC that the police were “hounding” (jagter) her in Chhattisgarh state, where Dr Sen worked with the poor.
– We are constantly followed by police, receive anonymous mails, threatening calls, and our phones are tapped, she said.
Her husband ran a weekly clinic for tribal people and was piloting a community-based health programme. Dr Sen won a prestigious Jonathan Mann human rights award for his services to poor and tribal communities.
He helped cut the infant mortality rate in the state and deaths from diarrhoea and dehydration, say local doctors.
