On Friday in its order, the bench comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Augustine George observed that based on evidence collected against the academic as also the allegations made by the prosecution witnesses, it could not be said that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusations against her are prima facie true.

Dr. Sen was on the verge of retirement when she was arrested for the case. She is now 66 and already six years have passed without the submission of worthwhile documents in the court prove the prima facie character of the allegations. The NIA prosecutors wanted to prolong the bail issue by requesting the bench that Dr. Sen should be asked to approach the NIA special court first as directed by the High Court but the bench rejected that.

The prosecution’s case was that Sen was an active member of the banned organisation Communist Party of India (CPI) (Maoist) and conspired with other accused persons to violently overthrow democracy and the State. There were also allegations that she provided party funds and also received party funds from Mahesh Raut, that she was paid a sum of ₹5 lakh by two other coaccused persons and made constant attempts to further terrorist activities of the banned CPI (Maoist).

It was also the prosecution’s case that she had been encouraging youngsters to join the proscribed organisation and recruiting them as members of the banned organisation. She was also accused of having participated in a broad conspiracy to organise the Elgar Parishad programme.

It was further alleged that Sen is associated with the Indian Association of Peoples Lawyers (IAPL), Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Committee (GMC) and Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) which have been described as frontal organisations of the CPI (Maoist) on the ground that they are instrumental in organising meetings and exchange of messages for implementation of aims and policies of the said banned organisation.

Senior advocate Anand Grover, argued for Dr. Sen’s bail in the Supreme Court. He vehemently contended that sending the bail matter back to the NIA court would do injustice to the petitioner, adding that her bail application had remained pending with the high court for three years for no fault of the petitioner.

He argued that if the hyper-technical and mechanical approach, which was adopted by the Bombay High Court and the NIA, was permitted by the Supreme Court as well, then liberty would be sacrificed at the altar of procedure.

Such an approach, Grover argued, would be detrimental, nay fatal, to liberty because the mere filing of supplementary chargesheets at any stage will become a cause to relegate the matter back to the court of first instance.

The Bench chose to overrule the argument of the NIA. It opined that it was the same investigation that was continued by the NIA, based on the same FIR. Only the investigating agency had changed.

“Just because the second supplementary chargesheet had been issued by the NIA after disposal of the bail application by the sessions court, it was not the only legal course available to the high court to remand the matter to the special court for examining the second supplementary chargesheet at the first instance.

The NIA is under the union home ministry having wide powers. In the case of the terrorists both from within the country as also outside, the NIA’s draconian powers are justified but the NIA is being used to silence the dissenters by terming them as anti-nationals and charging them under the draconian provisions of UAPA. Dr. Shoma Sen is a victim of these and so are many such activists. whose only fault is that they do not agree to the policies of the present Narendra Modi Government.

The Lok Sabha polls are due to begin on April 19 and continue till June 1. It is high time the opposition parties and the civil rights activists keep vigilance about the activities of the NIA so that the opposition leaders and workers are not hounded by the NIA in the name of nabbing anti-nationals. (IPA Service)