The curious case of Comrade Bala | Letters

In a lifetime observing our justice system in operation, I have yet to see a less appropriate sentence than the 23-year jail term meted out to the 75-year-old so-called “cult leader” Aravindan Balakrishnan (Cult leader jailed as his child reveals new identity, 30 January). That the offence – years of false imprisonment of his own daughter and imprisonment and sexual assaults on two other female devotees – was serious cannot be disputed. But, as the daughter herself said o