Justice delayed but not denied, says daughter as Bombay HC acquits GN Saibaba and SC refuses to stay decision

However, it gave the probe agency permission to move an application for the urgent listing of its petition.

Meanwhile, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court also allowed the appeal filed by Saibaba challenging a 2017 order of a sessions’ court in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district convicting him and sentencing him to life imprisonment.

The court, in its ruling, observed that a civil democracy cannot sacrifice procedural safeguards given to the accused while admitting that terrorism poses an ominous threat to national security and all-out fight must continue against it.

“My whole family is very happy right now. We are grateful that the judgment came,” Saibaba’s daughter Manjeera told South First.

“It has been more than seven years since we last saw him properly. It is the victory of justice, which was delayed as proceedings of the court did not take place during the initial phase of the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.

In the case of Mahesh Kariman Tirki v State of Maharashtra, the Division bench of Justices Rohit Deo and Anil Pansare also acquitted four others: Mahesh Tirki, Hem Keshwdatta Mishra, Prashant Rahi, and Vijay Nan Tirki.

The court also acquitted 33-year-old Pandu Pora Narote, who had passed away in prison.

While the lower court had sentenced Vijay to 10 years in jail under various provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA, the others were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Timeline of the events

Saibaba was arrested by the Maharashtra Police on 9 May, 2014, on charges of having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

The same year, Saibaba was suspended from his position as an assistant professor in the English Department of Ram Lal Anand College at Delhi University.

After his conviction in 2017, the professor was incarcerated in Nagpur Central Jail’s “anda cell” — the local name for the solitary-confinement cell.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court rejected his bail plea in March 2019, observing that the offences he was accused of were “serious in nature”.

A month later, a panel of UN experts from the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) reportedly wrote to the Central government urging authorities to immediately release Saibaba, citing his deteriorating health.

On 31 March, 2021, the principal of Ram Lal Anand College signed a memorandum terminating his services “with immediate effect”.

Earlier this year, Saibaba reportedly threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike inside his jail cell as a sign of protest against the installation of a CCTV camera that allegedly focused on his toilet and bathing area, which he said was an invasion of his privacy.

Ailing Saibaba

Wheelchair-bound GN Saibaba is 90 percent physically disabled.

As per the reports, Saibaba’s left hand is on the verge of failure and acute pain is spreading in both hands.

He is also plagued by pancreatitis, high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy, chronic back pain, immobility, and sleeplessness.

“We have not heard from him for over a month, but the last time we spoke, he had a very high fever,” Manjeera said, adding that doctors would take a call on Saibaba’s health once he returned to Hyderabad.

In 2019, his wife Vasantha Kumari wrote to the authorities seeking to shift him to Cherlapally central prison in Hyderabad, as his family lived close by and could visit him regularly.

The family also alleged that the Nagpur prison had no emergency room in case he needed immediate medical intervention.