The Supreme Court today granted bail and suspended the life sentence of CPI (Maoist) activist Narayan Sanyal who was held guilty of committing sedition along with civil rights activists Binayak Sen by a court in Chhattisgarh in 2010.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhayay ordered the release of 78-year-old Sanyal, considering his age and the fact that he has already spent over six years in jail since his arrest in 2006.

Sanyal was convicted along with paediatrician Binayak Sen and a Kolkata-based businessman Piyush Guha for colluding with the Maoists in expanding their network to fight the state. Sen was granted bail and his sentence was suspended by the apex court on April 15 last year.