Mumbai: In a significant development, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday acquitted former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba and his co-accused in a case involving suspected Maoist links.
The verdict, pronounced by a division bench comprising Justices Vinay G Joshi and Valmiki S A Menezes, marks the culmination of a legal battle that had been ongoing for several years.
The case dates back to 2013 when G N Saibaba, along with Mahesh Tirki, Hem Mishra, Pandu Narote, Prashant Rahi, and Vijay Tirki, was arrested by the Gadchiroli police in Maharashtra.
They were accused of being associated with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and its frontal group Revolutionary Democratic Front. Subsequently, they were convicted by a special court in 2017, with Saibaba and several others receiving life imprisonment sentences.
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However, the appeals filed by the accused against their convictions have now resulted in their acquittal by the Bombay High Court. The bench, which concluded the hearing and reserved its judgment in September last year, delivered the verdict in favour of the appellants.
This decision comes after a series of legal twists and turns. Notably, in October 2022, a different bench of the Bombay High Court had set aside the convictions, ordering the release of all four men in the case. However, the Supreme Court, responding to the state government’s plea seeking a stay on the high court verdict, suspended the order and remanded the matter back to the high court for reconsideration.
Following this, in April 2023, the Supreme Court set aside the earlier Bombay High Court order and directed for the case to be decided afresh by a different bench. The appeal was then reheard before the new bench, which ultimately acquitted the accused.
The legal battle saw further complexity when one of the judges from the previous bench, Justice Rohit Deo, resigned in August last year, citing personal reasons. Despite these challenges, the case has now concluded with the acquittal of Saibaba and his co-accused.
The judgment is likely to reignite debates surrounding the due process of law and the application of stringent anti-terrorism laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
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