Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday acquitted former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba in the Maoist links case. The court has canceled his life imprisonment. A division bench of Justice Vinay Joshi and Justice Valmiki S.A. Menezes also acquitted five other accused in the case.
What did the bench say?
The bench said it was acquitting all the accused as the prosecution failed to prove the case against them beyond reasonable doubt. “The prosecution has failed to produce any legal evidence or incriminating material against the accused,” it said. The bench said, ‘The decision of the lower court does not meet the standards of law, hence we cancel that decision. All the accused are acquitted.
It also declared as invalid the sanction obtained by the prosecution for filing charges under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). However, the prosecution later orally requested the court to stay its order for 6 weeks, so that it could file an appeal in the Supreme Court.
The bench directed the prosecution to file an application for a stay on this. Another bench of the High Court had acquitted Saibaba on October 14, 2022, taking cognizance that the trial proceedings were invalid in the absence of valid sanction under UAPA.
The Maharashtra government had approached the Supreme Court on the same day challenging the decision. The top court initially stayed the order and later in April 2023 quashed the high court order and directed a fresh hearing on the appeal filed by Saibaba.
Saibaba, 54, who is wheelchair-bound due to physical disability, is lodged in Nagpur Central Jail since his arrest in the case in 2014. In 2017, a sessions court in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district had convicted Saibaba, a journalist and five others, including a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, for alleged Maoist links and involvement in activities like waging war against the country. . The Sessions Court had convicted him under UAPA and various provisions of the Indian Penal Code. (input language)
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