‘Justice delivered, thankful to lawyers’: Former DU professor G N Saibaba’s wife over his acquittal

NEW DELHI: Expressing joy over the acquittal of the former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba today in an alleged Maoist links case, his wife A S Vasantha Kumari thanked the lawyers and said that justice has been delivered. The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court acquitted the former DU professor noting that the prosecution failed to prove the case against him and set aside his life sentence.

“Extremely happy to hear the news of full acquittal for Dr G N Saibaba and others. After 10 long years of struggle, justice is delivered. I only hope there are no future obstacles to his very well deserved freedom. Thank you to the lawyers who have been working on this tirelessly for justice.Thank you to all the human rights defenders, all the people who stood in solidarity for Dr G N Saibaba,” Vasantha Saibaba told Careers360.

A division bench of Justices Vinay Joshi and Valmiki SA Menezes also acquitted five others accused in the case. "The prosecution has failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the case against the accused persons," the HC said.

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In April last year, the Supreme Court had set aside the Bombay HC order acquitting professor Saibaba after Maharashtra government’s appeal and remanded it back to the high court for fresh consideration. In October 2022, the top court had suspended the high court order. It had also rejected Saibaba's request to order his release from jail due to his disability and health conditions and to put him under house arrest after the Maharashtra government opposed the plea.

One day before the apex court’s order, the Bombay High Court had acquitted Saibaba and ordered his release from jail, noting that the sanction order issued to prosecute the accused in the case under the stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) was "bad in law and invalid".

Apart from Saibaba, Mahesh Kariman Tirki, Pandu Pora Narote (both farmers), Hem Keshavdatta Mishra (student) and Prashant Sanglikar (journalist) were accused in the case and sentenced to life imprisonment, while Vijay Tirki (labourer) who was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

(with inputs from PTI)