Maharashtra’s government has moved the Supreme Court to challenge Bombay HC’s Nagpur injunction and acquit the ex-DU professor in an alleged Maoist left-wing case.
Mumbai,UPDATED: 14 Oct 2022 18:53 IST
Saibaba was arrested for having connections with Maoists holed up in the forests of Abujmad in Chhattisgarh. (File photo)
By Kanu SardaHours after the acquittal of former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba, accused of alleged Maoist ties, the government of Maharashtra approached the Supreme Court asking for a postponement of his release.
However, a bench headed by Judge DY Chandrachud refused to hold the acquittal and said the case could be heard on Monday.
The Bombay Supreme Court’s Nagpur Bench acquitted Saibaba and five others, granted their appeal and overturned the life sentence imposed on them in 2017 by a court in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli, which had convicted them of alleged Maoist ties.
As the Supreme Court of India’s Chief Justice UU Lalit failed to meet after lunch, Attorney General Tushar Mehta referred the case to Justice Chandrachud for immediate listing. Judge Chandrachud said: “We cannot postpone the acquittal. We will keep it on Monday.”
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However, Judge Chandrachud, at the request of Mehta, gave the state of Maharashtra the freedom to report the case to the Registrar in order to obtain appropriate instructions from the CJI to list the case.
Saibaba is currently incarcerated in Nagpur Central Prison. He was arrested in May 2014 for alleged ties to the Maoists. The wheelchair-bound professor taught English at the Ram Lal Anand College of the University of Delhi before his arrest.
Saibaba was taken into custody after the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University student Hem Mishra, who had alleged before investigative agencies that he acted as a courier between the professor and Maoists holed up in the forests of Abujmad in Chhattisgarh.