Raipur:
Rights activist Binayak Sen, released on bail while serving a life sentence for sedition and links with Maoists, tonight asserted he is not a "traitor" and said the Supreme Court observation in his case will have "deep political implications".
Sen also welcomed Law Minister Veerappa Moily's stand that the country's sedition laws needed a "relook" and gave a clarion call for a campaign by the civil society against these
legislations.
Asserting that the charge of sedition slapped on him was "misplaced", Dr Sen, who walked free from the Raipur Central prison after the Supreme Court granted bail, categorically said that he has never betrayed his country.
(Read: Dr Binayak Sen out on bail) "I know in my heart that I have never betrayed our country. I am in no way a traitor," the 61-year-old medical doctor said shortly after his release from the prison where he
has been lodged since December 24 last after being sentenced to life by a trial court.
Stating categorically that there was no case of sedition against Dr Sen, a bench of Justices Harjit Singh Bedi and Chandramauli Kumar Prasad had said, "We are in a democratic country. At best he (Binayak Sen) is a sympathiser. There are many sympathisers of a cause."
The Apex Court in a scathing observation also said that a person does not become a Gandhian just because he is found with a biography of Mahatma Gandhi.
Hours after the Supreme Court granted bail to Dr Sen, Law Minister Moily dubbed sedition laws as "outdated" and said he would ask the Law Commission to study the issue. "I will consult the Home Minister and after that the Law Commission could be asked to revisit laws relating to sedition," Mr Moily had said.