New Delhi:

Former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba demanded that he be reinstated by the varsity and compensated for the lost years of service following his acquittal by the Bombay High Court in a Maoist links case.

The Committee for the Defence and Release of Dr GN Saibaba comprising academicians, lawyers and Left politicians demanded his reinstatement and compensation for all the six people who were released from the Nagpur Central Jail after the court declared in its judgement that the prosecution failed to establish charges against them.

Addressing a press conference here, the 58-year-old said he can’t live without teaching and wants to resume his job as a professor. Saibaba was terminated from his service at DU’s Ram Lal Anand College in 2021 after being implicated in the case.

He said he still feels as if he is in a jail cell after spending seven years in prison.

He was released from the Nagpur Central Jail on Thursday, two days after his acquittal.

Talking about his family, he said they survived only on hope but regretted not being able to meet his mother on her deathbed and claimed he was denied bail to perform her last rites.

“Instead of going to the hospital, I chose to speak to the press because you supported me. My family faced stigma and I was called a terrorist,” he said with tears in his eyes.

Recalling his “jail ordeal” Saibaba claimed he was forced to live in cramped conditions and was denied medicines and treatment prescribed by doctors for his ailing health.

“I was imprisoned in a jail which has a capacity of 1,500 inmates but 3,000 people were lodged there in cramped conditions. There was no space to even sleep. Without a wheelchair I use to struggle to use toilet, take bath or even fetch myself a class of water. There was not even a single ramp in the prison for people like me,” he said in a chocked voice.

“Today I am alive in front of you. But every organ of my body is failing. I faced many medical emergencies in the jail but they only gave me painkillers and did a few tests,” he added.

Saibaba said that his family faced stigma because he was framed in a case under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Saibaba was lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail since 2017 after his conviction by a trial court in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. Before that, he was in prison from 2014 to 2016 and was subsequently granted bail.

“I am still not able to register that I am free. I feel I am still lodged in the notorious jail cell. It was like an ‘agni pariksha’ for me. I had to go through a test by fire twice,” he said.

Thanking his lawyers, friends, and activists, he said one his lawyers fought his case without any fees.

“Another lawyer got jailed because of supporting me. During the trial, certain police officers threatened my lawyers,” he alleged.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba, who was acquitted by the Bombay High Court in a Maoist links case, said he still feels as if he is in a jail cell after spending seven years in prison.

He was released from the Nagpur Central Jail on Thursday, two days after his acquittal.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Saibaba recalled his “jail ordeal” and even got emotional as he spoke about what his family went through in the last seven years.

Mr Saibaba was lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail since 2017 after his conviction by a trial court in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. Before that, he was in prison from 2014 to 2016 and was subsequently granted bail.

“I am still not able to register that I am free. I feel I am still lodged in the notorious jail cell. It was like an ‘agni pariksha’ for me. I had to go through a test by fire twice,” he said.

Thanking his lawyers for fighting the case, he said one of them fought his case without any fees.

“Another lawyer got jailed because of supporting me. During the trial, certain police officers threatened my lawyers,” he alleged.

Talking about his family, he said they survived only on hope.

“Instead of going to the hospital, I chose to speak to the press because you supported me. My family faced stigma and I was called a terrorist,” he said with tears in his eyes.
 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court verdict acquitting former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba in a case in which he was accused of having links with the banned CPI (Maoist).

Earlier in the day, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court acquitted Mr Saibaba, noting that the prosecution failed to prove the case against him.

The high court also set aside the life sentence imposed on Mr Saibaba, 54, and acquitted five other accused in the case.

“The prosecution has failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the case against the accused persons,” a division bench of Justices Vinay Joshi and Valmiki SA Menezes said.

It held as “null and void” the sanction procured by the prosecution to charge the accused under anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

“The prosecution has failed to establish any legal seizure or any incriminating material against the accused,” the high court said.

Mr Saibaba, who is wheelchair-bound, is lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail since his arrest in the case in 2014.

In March 2017, a sessions court in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district had convicted Mr Saibaba and five others, including a journalist and a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, for alleged Maoist links and for indulging in activities amounting to waging war against the country.

The trial court had held Mr Saibaba and others guilty under various provisions of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code.

On October 14, 2022, another bench of the high court had acquitted Mr Saibaba, noting the trial proceedings were “null and void” in the absence of a valid sanction under the UAPA.

The Maharashtra government, on the same day, approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision.

The Supreme Court initially stayed the order, and later set it aside in April 2023. It directed the high court to hear his appeal afresh.

The earlier high court bench comprising Justices Rohit Deo and Anil Pansare, in its October 2022 judgment, said the sanction to prosecute the five accused under the UAPA was granted in 2014 and against Saibaba in 2015. The five had been arrested before Mr Saibaba.

The bench had noted that in 2014, when the trial court took cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the prosecution, there was no sanction to prosecute Mr Saibaba under the UAPA.

Justice Deo, who was due to retire in December 2025, tendered his resignation on August 4, 2023, citing personal reasons.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)