New Delhi, Jan. 27: Activists, academics and artistes wrote to the Prime Minister on Republic Day and circulated a petition condemning the imprisonment of Binayak Sen and the case against his wife Ilina Sen.

Social activist Binayak was handed a life term for sedition by a Chhattisgarh court on December 24, and the state’s high court is hearing his appeal against his conviction. A case was filed against Ilina under the Foreigners Act in Maharashtra on January 24.

Maharashtra police’s anti-terrorist squad has alleged that Ilina had failed to inform the police about foreign delegates attending a conference at the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, where she heads the women’s studies department. A local hotelier has been arrested for not informing the police about some foreign guests.

Academics have condemned the case against Ilina as a move to stifle academic freedom.

“On the one hand, we want world-class universities and, on the other, you want conference organisers to keep reporting to the police every time a foreigner attends a conference. Will they now ask us to get home ministry clearance for every book or academic paper we read?” asked Nandini Sundar, head of Delhi University’s sociology department.

Sundar’s name is one of more than 300, collected till last evening, on the petition against the case against Ilina. Other signatories include economists Prabhat Patnaik and Jayati Ghosh, activists Aruna Roy and Shabnam Hashmi, filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, feminist Amrita Chhachhi and historian Uma Chakravarti.

Artistes and writers have written to the Prime Minister condemning the “victimisation and unjust imprisonment” of Binayak. They have also asked Manmohan Singh to scrap the “colonial” law against sedition.

Those who signed the letter include the heads of several government bodies such as Sharmila Tagore, chairperson of the Central Board for Film Certification, and Ashok Vajpeyi, chairperson of the Lalit Kala Akademi. They also include film personalities such as Naseeruddin Shah, Girish Karnad, Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen and Rahul Bose.

Ilina says her department had obtained clearances for the foreign delegates from the ministries of home, women and child development, and external affairs.

The four Pakistani and Bangladeshi delegates named in the FIR were staying on the university campus. Three of them stayed at the vice-chancellor’s residence. Vice-chancellor Vibhuti Narain Rai is an acclaimed writer and a serving IPS officer on deputation.