The Maharashtra government has yet again moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court's order, on Tuesday, March 5, acquitting former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba and five others accused in an alleged Maoist links case. The Bombay High Court's Nagpur Bench acquitted Saibaba and five others, overturning the 2017 verdict of a Gadchiroli sessions court which had sentenced them to life terms.
A division bench of Justices Vinay Joshi and Valmiki SA Menezes ordered the acquitted accused to be released from jail after depositing Rs 50,000 each as bail bond. The bench said that it was acquitting all the accused in the case as the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt against them. The Court declared the sanction against the accused under the UAPA as “null and void.”
Justices Joshi and Menezes re-heard Saibaba’s case after a previous division bench of the Bombay High Court had also acquitted the disabled professor in October 2022. The re-hearing took place after the Supreme Court set aside the October 2022 acquittal order and remanded the matter for a fresh hearing back to the Bombay High Court.
The prosecution alleged that Saibaba and others were working for the banned CPI-Maoist and its frontal organisations like the Revolutionary Democratic Front. The Maharashtra Police had seized evidence like Maoist literature, pamphlets, electronic materials, and other things deemed to be "anti-national" from them.
The activist-academician, who requires a wheelchair for movement, was arrested under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, along with five others - Mahesh Kariman Tirki (farmer), Pandu Pora Narote (farmer), Hem Keshavdatta Mishra (student) and Prashant Sanglikar (journalist), were sentenced to life imprisonment, while Vijay Tirki (labourer), was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Pandu Pora Narote died in August 2022 during the pendency of the appeal.
Read: 'Who will give Saibaba his health back?': Activists react to his acquittal in UAPA case
In 2022, Maharashtra government had moved the Supreme Court and said that Saibaba was the “brain” behind the alleged Maoist activities.
(With IANS inputs)