DU's Saibaba, four others get life for Maoist links

Nagpur: In a landmark judgment, a local court in Gadchiroli on Tuesday sentenced former Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba and four others to life imprisonment for links with Maoists. A sixth accused was sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment (RI).

In the sedition case slapped against him, Saibaba, who is 90 per cent disabled and bound to a wheelchair, is charged for being a member of a banned anti-national maoist organisations.

Saibaba was arrested in May 2014 by the Gadchiroli police, which recovered a lot of incriminating data from his hard disk. He was found guilty of offences punishable under Sections 13, 18, 20, 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (Amendment 2008).

Principal Gadchiroli district sessions judge Suryakant Shinde announced the verdict in a packed courtroom. Other accused Hem Mishra, Prashant Rahi, Mahesh Tirke and Pandu Narote were also found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. The sixth accused, Vijay Tirke, who was described as a first timer, was however given a milder punishment of 10 years rigorous imprisonment.

Noted lawyer Prashant Sathianathan, who was special public prosecutor, expressed satisfaction over the verdict. He told The Asian Age from Gadchiroli where he was personally present in the court, that all the accused deserved life sentence. “This is a historic judgment,” Mr Sathianathan added.

The prosecution had examined 23 witnesses including two then Maharashtra home secretaries, Amitav Ranjan and K.P. Bakshi, who had accorded sanction to prosecute Saibaba under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (Amendment 2008) Act.

Mr Sathianathan, who led the prosecution legal team, said they presented glaring evidence and concrete facts before the sessions court. “We had rock-solid evidence against him and his role in anti-national Naxal activities,” he stated.

Commenting on the verdict, Gadchiroli superintendent of police Abhinav Deshmukh said it is a “Legal strike on white-collar naxalism”.

Saibaba had applied for bail, but the high court here had rejected his plea on all counts, particularly the health ground cited by Saibaba and his supporters citing medical reports, which clearly stated that proper medical aid was extended to him from super specialty hospital doctors when he was lodged in Central Prison in Nagpur.

The high court earlier had also rejected the argument of Saibaba about there being very weak evidence against him. After perusing evidence on record, the high court had recorded a categorical finding: “There is a prima facie case against the applicant (Saibaba) based on the strong evidence and in fact, the applicant who is an intellectual has used his intellect for anti-national activities, for which there is strong evidence.”

As per the Supreme Court’s direction, the trial court expeditiously completed examination and cross-examination of witnesses including Shrikant Pochreddi Gaddewar, Ravindra Manohar Kumbhare, Ramesh K. Yede, Raju Poriya Atram, Atul Shantaram Avhad, Suhas Prakash Bawche, Apeksha Ramteke, Dr Amitabh Rajan, additional chief secretary (home) and sanctioning authority under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, ex-additional chief secretary (home) K.P. Bakshi.