Supreme Court on Saturday suspended Bombay HC order acquitting former DU professor GN Saibaba and others in Maoist-links case. An apex court bench of justices M R Shah and Bela M Trivedi, which sat on a non-working day to hear the matter, also rejected Saibaba’s request for putting him under house arrest in view of his physical disability and health conditions.
Yesterday, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court acquitted former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba in an alleged Maoist links case. The bench also ordered his immediate release from jail.
Besides, the bench also acquitted co-accused Mahesh Tikri, Hem Mishra, Prashant Rahi, and Vijay Tikri.
The wheelchair-bound expelled professor is lodged at the Nagpur central prison.
On Friday, the top court had refused to stay the Bombay High Court order.
Following the High Court acquitting Saibaba, the Maharashtra government swiftly moved the apex court seeking a stay on the order which was declined. The top court, however, allowed Maharashtra to move an application before the registry requesting an urgent listing of the matter.
A bench of Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli had told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who mentioned the matter for urgent listing and sought a stay on the verdict, that the court can not stay the acquittal order as the parties are not before it.
More than eight years after his arrest, the Bombay High Court on Friday 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 UAPA was “bad in law and invalid”.
The Nagpur bench of the high court allowed the appeal filed by Saibaba challenging a 2017 order of the trial court convicting and sentencing him to life imprisonment.
Saibaba was a prominent voice in the campaign against Operation Green Hunt. He was arrested for alleged Maoist links on 9 May 2014. In 2015, he was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on medical grounds. However, on 14 December 2015, he was again sent back to jail. In 2016, Saibaba was released again after Supreme Court’s order. But, in 2017 he was sentenced to life imprisonment 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). Saibaba denied the charge that organisation he ran was a front for CPI-Maoist.
Last year, Saibaba was terminated from Ram Lal Anand College of Delhi University.
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Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/sc-suspends-bombay-hc-order-acquitting-gn-saibaba-others-in-maoist-links-case-11665817982126.html
