JAIPUR : Activist groups have strongly criticised the arrest of Binayak Sen, national vice-president of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), by the Chhattisgarh police.

The arrest of the well-known medical practitioner and social activist under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005 (CSPSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 was an act of ``vengeful'' State repression and a gross violation of human rights, they said.

The cases against Dr. Sen for espousing the cause of innocent Adivasis caught in the cross fire of the administration and the Maoists were unjustified, they said.

Magsaysay award winner Aruna Roy, who led the protests, and Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan activist Bhanwar Meghvanshi pointed out in a letter to Chief Minister Raman Singh that Dr. Sen was a noted human rights activist and an esteemed member of the medical community. ``We have known Dr. Sen for the past 20 years and are shocked to learn that the Government of Chhattisgarh has arrested him,'' they said.

It was deplorable that the Government was harassing sincere social activists who had dedicated their lives to working for the people, instead of addressing the real issues of poverty and economic marginalisation. Dr. Sen and the PUCL had consistently and courageously highlighted the gross human rights violations and injustices being committed in Chhattisgarh, they noted.

``As citizens of India, we are all very concerned about the deteriorating condition of human rights and the threat of civil war in your State, which is also the cause for a great deal of concern at the national and international level,'' they said. Even K.P.S. Gill, who was adviser to the State Government on naxalism, had recently stated in an interview that the problem of Chhattisgarh was not naxalism but the administration, the letter said.

Rajasthan PUCL functionaries, Than Singh and Kavita Srivastava, in a statement, said the Chhattisgarh PUCL and Dr .Sen were instrumental in exposing the extra legal ``murders'' committed by the State police in the name of encounters. The police were accusing him of meeting Maoist leaders in jail, but he did that openly and after following the due process of law, they said.

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