Nagpur: Maoists in Gadchiroli have put up banners calling for a nationwide bandh on March 29 over the life sentence that was awarded to Delhi University’s Prof G.N. Saibaba by a designated court in the district last fortnight.
The wheelchair-bound lecturer — who was arrested in May 2014 by Gadchiroli police, which recovered ‘incriminating data’ from his hard disk — was convicted for sedition on March 7 by principal district session judge Suryakant Shinde along with four others — Hem Mishra, Prashant Rahi, Mahesh Tirke and Pandu Narote — and was handed a life sentence after the prosecution produced a large amount of evidence to prove its charges. The sixth accused, Vijay Tirke, who was described as the first timer was given a mild punishment of 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
This is first time the Maoists have openly associated themselves with Prof Saibaba. A group of Naxalites claiming to be from the Bhamragarh Area Committee have come out with red banners declaring a ‘Bharat bandh’ on March 29 and denounced the life sentence, saying Prof Saibaba had been falsely implicated in the case. The banner raised the issues of corporatisation and commercialisation of resources.
The case’s investigating officer Suhas Bawche has received over 20,000 letters from Human Rights Organisations in 90 countries condemning Prof Saibaba’s arrest, over a period of time, official sources in Anti-Naxalites Operations (ANO) said, on Wednesday. About 750 persons have been killed by Naxals since 1980, sources said. The prosecution had examined 23 witnesses including two home secretaries, Amitav Ranjan and K.P. Bakshi, who had accorded the sanction to prosecute Prof Saibaba under the Act.
Prof Saibaba had applied for bail but the high court here rejected his application on all counts, particularly the health ground raised by his supporters and him, citing a medical report, which stated that proper medical aid was extended to him by Super Specialty Hospital doctors when he was lodged in Central Prison in Nagpur.
The high court had also rejected the argument of Prof Saibaba about very weak evidence against him. After perusing evidence on record, the court had recorded a categorical finding.
