Bombay HC throws out UAPA case against Saibaba, five others
Bombay High Court has acquitted Delhi University ex-professor GN Saibaba and five others, who were convicted under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, for want of proof apart from procedural flaws. The bench held that the prosecution failed to establish legal seizure of material and could not prove anything incriminating against the accused. The case was «unsustainable in the hands of law», the court said upholding the appeals of the defendants.
The bench also said the trial was vitiated by an invalid sanction to prosecute the accused. The trial violated mandatory provisions of law and amounted to failure of justice, a division bench of justices Vinay G Joshi and Valmiki SA Menezes said in the verdict on Tuesday.
Saibaba, 54, is wheelchair-bound and has been lodged in Nagpur central jail for years. In May 2014, the former DU professor was arrested by the anti-Naxal operations unit of the Maharashtra Police accusing him of being the 'urban contact' of banned CPI(Maoist).
The police alleged that Saibaba was 'in touch with top Maoists leaders through a series of couriers'. Saibaba's name 'cropped up' during interrogation of Jawaharlal Nehru University student Hem Mishra, the police claimed. Mishra reportedly claimed to the police that he 'acted as a courier between the professor and the Maoist leadership'.
A sessions court in Gadchiroli convicted Saibaba under UAPA in 2017. It held that Saibaba and two other accused were 'in possession of Maoist literature with the intent and purpose of circulation among
