The excessive courtroom additionally put aside the life sentence imposed on Mr Saibaba.
New Delhi:
The Maharashtra authorities on Tuesday moved the Supreme Courtroom difficult the Bombay Excessive Courtroom verdict acquitting former Delhi College professor G N Saibaba in a case by which he was accused of getting hyperlinks with the banned CPI (Maoist).
Earlier within the day, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay Excessive Courtroom acquitted Mr Saibaba, noting that the prosecution didn’t show the case in opposition to him.
The excessive courtroom additionally put aside the life sentence imposed on Mr Saibaba, 54, and acquitted 5 different accused within the case.
“The prosecution has didn’t show past cheap doubt the case in opposition to the accused individuals,” a division bench of Justices Vinay Joshi and Valmiki SA Menezes mentioned.
It held as “null and void” the sanction procured by the prosecution to cost the accused beneath anti-terror legislation, the Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
“The prosecution has failed to ascertain any authorized seizure or any incriminating materials in opposition to the accused,” the excessive courtroom mentioned.
Mr Saibaba, who’s wheelchair-bound, is lodged within the Nagpur Central Jail since his arrest within the case in 2014.
In March 2017, a periods courtroom in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district had convicted Mr Saibaba and 5 others, together with a journalist and a Jawaharlal Nehru College (JNU) scholar, for alleged Maoist hyperlinks and for indulging in actions amounting to waging battle in opposition to the nation.
The trial courtroom had held Mr Saibaba and others responsible beneath varied provisions of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code.
On October 14, 2022, one other bench of the excessive courtroom had acquitted Mr Saibaba, noting the trial proceedings have been “null and void” within the absence of a sound sanction beneath the UAPA.
The Maharashtra authorities, on the identical day, approached the Supreme Courtroom difficult the choice.
The Supreme Courtroom initially stayed the order, and later set it apart in April 2023. It directed the excessive courtroom to listen to his attraction afresh.
The sooner excessive courtroom bench comprising Justices Rohit Deo and Anil Pansare, in its October 2022 judgment, mentioned the sanction to prosecute the 5 accused beneath the UAPA was granted in 2014 and in opposition to Saibaba in 2015. The 5 had been arrested earlier than Mr Saibaba.
The bench had famous that in 2014, when the trial courtroom took cognisance of the cost sheet filed by the prosecution, there was no sanction to prosecute Mr Saibaba beneath the UAPA.
Justice Deo, who was on account of retire in December 2025, tendered his resignation on August 4, 2023, citing private causes.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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