Former DU Professor GN Saibaba to remain in jail; SC suspends Bombay HC's order

The Supreme Court also rejected Saibaba's plea that he be put under house arrest and other restrictions the court might put on him instead of prison.

The top court asked Saibaba to file an application for bail.

A special bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice M R Shah and also comprising Justice Bela M Trivedi, passed the order, after hearing the submissions and arguments made by the Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta for the Maharashtra Government and senior lawyer R Basant for Saibaba.

The Supreme Court, however, said it would hear the case in detail, later on, in view of its sensitivity.

Basant contended that Saibaba is 55-year-old and wheelchair bound with 90 percent disability and was not involved in the activity of waging a war against the country as alleged by the Maharashtra government.

Basant said the Solicitor General alleged that he (Saibaba) was the brain behind it, but there is nothing to show his involvement.

To this, Justice Shah observed, "So far as terrorists or Maoists activities are concerned, the connection is more dangerous. Direct involvement is not necessary."

Justice Shah said, "I say this not with respect to this specific case."

Basant further argued that Saibaba was arrested in 2015, and has been under custody for over 7 years except for a brief period of two times, where he was given bail on medical grounds.

"Generally in terrorists and Maoist activities, indirect involvement is more important than physical strength. Direct involvement may not be required," Justice Shah, leading the bench, said and dismissed the relief of acquittal granted by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court to Saibaba and others.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta vehemently opposed Saibaba's plea seeking house arrest and told the Supreme Court that nowadays such requests are being frequently made by "urban Naxals" and the court should not allow such kinds of pleas.

The Supreme Court asked Saibaba, to file an appropriate application for bail.

It also asked him to file his response on the appeal filed by the Maharashtra government seeking to cancel the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court, and fixed the matter for further hearing after December 8, 2022.

"The facts are very very disturbing, supporting the call for arms in Jammu and Kashmir, supporting overthrowing Parliament, arranging meetings with Naxalites, attacking our security forces, etc," Mehta told the Supreme Court as sought a direction to stay yesterday's Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court's order.

"There are no criminal antecedents whatsoever for him (Saibaba). He is leading a respectable life, maybe ideologically inclined. There is nothing to show his involvement in any kind of illegal and or terror activities," Basant told the Supreme Court.

Basant, on Saibaba's behalf, further pleaded to the Supreme Court that Saibaba, 55, is a married man with family, includinga 23-year-old unmarried daughter. He is having 90 percent disability and is Paraplegic. He is having multiple other ailments which are judicially accepted and confined to a wheelchair.

Mehta said there are six accused in the case. As far as accused number 6 (Saibaba) is concerned, he did not raise the ground of sanction at trial and was raised at the appellate stage.

"The purpose of a sanction is to ensure at the threshold that a person is not put to vexatious trial. This is not a vexatious trial. If after a full-fledged trial, a person is found guilty, there is no vexatious trial," Mehta argued. 

Dr G N Saibaba was sentenced to life imprisonment for his links with CPI (Maoist). He was arrested by the Maharashtra Police in May 2014 for alleged links with Maoists.

The English professor belongs to Maharashtra's Maoist-affected Gadchiroli district. His name came to the fore after the arrests of two alleged Maoist sympathizers, Hem Mishra and Prashant Rahi, in December 2013.

Both had reportedly claimed that Saibaba was their main contact and based on their information, the police seized the professor's computer to investigate him further.

(With UNI inputs)