Delhi University’s former Assistant Professor G N Saibaba passed away on Saturday at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad. He was undergoing treatment there for post-operative complications that developed after surgery to remove gallbladder stones. This tragic event occurred seven months after he was acquitted of charges related to alleged Maoists links.

Who Was GN Saibaba?

Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba, born in 1967 was from Amalapuram, Andhra Pradesh. He taught English Literature at DU from 2003 up to his termination in 2014.

Saibaba was arrested by the Maharashtra police on suspected Maoist links. He was accused of facilitating a meeting between another accused JNU student and an Uttarakhand-based journalist with banned CPI (Maoist) members and the Revolutionary Democratic Front.

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Legal Battles

In June 2015, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Saibaba on account of serious health issues but was taken back to prison later in the same year. The Supreme Court later granted him bail in April 2016. He, along with other convicts, received life sentences under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in March 2017.

In a dramatic turn of events, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court acquitted Saibaba and his co-accused in October 2022, concluding that there was no valid sanction for their prosecution under the UAPA. However, the apex court stayed this order and discharged the accused in April 2023.

In March 2024, Saibaba and others were acquitted again by Bombay HC led by the Nagpur bench and thereby released from jail on March 7.

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