New Delhi: Delhi University professor G N Saibaba has been sentenced to life under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for having connections with the Maoists by a sessions court in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra.
Along with Saibaba, JNU student Hem Mishra, former journalist Prashant Rahi and three others have also been convicted for Maoist links under UAPA.
Announcing the quantum of punishment, the Gadchiroli court pronounced life imprisonment for five including professor Sai Baba and ten years for Vijay Tirke for the crime.
In November 2016, final arguments had commenced in the predilection of the DU professor and the others in the Gadchiroli sessions court.
He was arrested soon after a JNU student Hemant Mishra, who was in police custody, revealed during interrogation that he was acting as a link between the DU professor and Maoists in the Abujmad forests of Chhattisgarh.
However, in March 2016, The Supreme Court bench of Justice JS Khehar and Justice Nagappan acting on a Special leave petition challenging the rejection of the bail application of Saibaba by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay HC, granted bail to the professor on health grounds in the case.
The SC also reprimanded the counsel of the Maha govt saying: “You have been extremely unfair to the accused(Prof Saibaba), especially given to his medical examination.”
The wheelchair-bound prof is 90% disabled and was paralysed from the waist-downwards after contracting polio in his childhood.
The court found Saibaba and five others guilty of waging a war against India.
Prashant Sathi, prosecution lawyer, had prayed to the court that the accused must be sentenced to life imprisonment under section 20 of the Act.
Sathi had also contended that Saibaba and others shouldn’t get any relief, and that his disability should not be any factor to lessen the punishment as this handicap had never prevented him from aiding activities which killed several people.
Comments
0 comment