GN Saibaba acquitted: After 10 years in prison, former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba was on Tuesday acquitted by the Bombay High Court in an alleged Maoist links case. The high court set aside the life sentence given to Saibaba, who has been lodged in jail since 2014. Along with him, five other accused were acquitted as the prosecution was unsuccessful in proving the case beyond reasonable doubt.

The verdict was pronounced by a division bench of Justices Vinay Joshi and Valmiki SA Menezes. Dismissing the sanction obtained by the prosecution to charge the accused under provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the court termed it as "null and void". The prosecution, which did not urge the high court to stay its order, said it was likely to move the Supreme Court immediately.

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Who Is GN Saibaba?

Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba or GN Saibaba is a former university professor. He was employed at Ram Lal Anand College in the South Campus of Delhi University (DU). Saibaba has remained incarcerated in the Nagpur jail for the past 10 years.

Born in 1967 in Amalapuram of Andhra Pradesh, Saibaba belongs to an agrarian family. He reportedly spent a majority of his youth days as an activist and was associated with Radical Students' Union (RSU) and later with All India People´s Resistance Forum (AIPRF). According to a report by the Times of India, he quit the AIPRF after his daughter was born.

The AIPRF later became Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF). Both RDF and RSU were said to be the wings of banned maoist organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist).

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Why Is Saibaba Lodged In Jail

Saibaba, now 54-years-old, was arrested in 2014 over alleged links to banned Maoist organisations. Three years later, in 2017, a sessions court in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district convicted Saibaba and five others in the case. The accused also included a journalist and a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student.

They were charged for alleged Maoist links and for indulging in activities amounting to waging war against the country. The trial court had held them guilty under various provisions of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code.

Earlier, on October 14, 2022, a different bench of Bombay High Court had acquitted Saibaba. The bench had observed that the trial proceedings were "null and void" as the prosecution did not have a valid sanction under the UAPA. The high court's decision was challenged in the Supreme Court by the Maharashtra government on the same day.

Responding to the government's appeal, the apex court initially stayed the HC order. Later in April 2023, the apex court set aside the HC verdict and asked the court to hear the Saibaba's plea afresh.