Bombay HC orders immediate release of ex-DU professor acquitted in Maoist case

The bench also allowed the appeal of five other convicts in the case and acquitted them. One of the five died pending a hearing of the appeal. The bench directed for the convicts to be released forthwith from jail unless they are accused in any other case.

Bombay HC orders immediate release of ex-DU professor acquitted in Maoist case

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has acquitted former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba in an alleged Maoist links case and has ordered his immediate release from jail. A division bench of Justice Rohit Deo and Anil Pansare allowed the appeal filed by Saibaba challenging a 2017 order of the trial court convicting him and sentencing him to life imprisonment. Saibaba, who is wheelchair-bound due to a physical disability, is currently lodged at the Nagpur central prison.

The bench also allowed the appeal of five other convicts in the case and acquitted them. One of the five died pending a hearing of the appeal. The bench directed for the convicts to be released forthwith from jail unless they are accused in any other case, as reported by NDTV.

In March 2017, a sessions court in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district had convicted Saibaba and 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 court had held Saibaba and the others guilty under various provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

He was arrested in May 2014 for Maoist links.Saibaba was however granted bail by Bombay High Court in June 2015 on medical grounds and he was released in July 2015. He was sent back to jail in December 2015 was released again in April 2016 after Supreme Court granted him bail. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in March 2017 under Sections 13, 18, 20, 38 and 39 of the UAPA and Section 120 B of the Indian Penal Code for connections with the banned Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), an organisation linked with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Saibaba denied the charge that organisation he ran was a front for CPI-Maoist. In April 2021, he was terminated from Ram Lal Anand College of Delhi University.

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