Former DU professor GN Saibaba, cleared of Maoist links, passes away at 57

New Delhi: Former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba passed away late Saturday evening due to post-operative complications following surgery for gallbladder stones. He was 57 years old.

Saibaba was receiving treatment at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad, having been admitted there 10 days prior due to health issues. His aides reported that he suffered a heart attack around 8 pm and was pronounced dead at 8.30 pm.

On March 5, he was acquitted by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court after being arrested on May 9, 2014, in connection with alleged Maoist links. He was released from Nagpur Central Jail on March 7.

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. It also held as "null and void" the sanction procured by the prosecution to charge the accused under provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Saibaba, who was wheelchair-bound due to a physical disability, was lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail since his arrest in the case in 2014.

In March 2017, a sessions court in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district convicted Saibaba and five 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 trial court had held Saibaba and others guilty under various provisions of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code.

Saibaba was accused of arranging a meeting of the other accused — JNU student Hem Mishra and Uttarakhand-based journalist Prashant Rahi — with members of the banned CPI (Maoist) and its alleged frontal organisation, the Revolutionary Democratic Front.
Saibaba was an English professor at Delhi University’s Ram Lal Anand College, which he joined in 2003. The college suspended him in 2014 after the Maharashtra police arrested him for suspected Maoist links.