Wheeling into freedom
The wheelchair-bound former Delhi University professor, who spent years in jail, was released after he was acquitted of charges under UAPA by the Bombay High Court
Till 1997, before he came to Delhi, G.N. Saibaba, 90% disabled since the age of 5 years, wore slippers on his hands to move around till he could buy a wheelchair. His hands were very strong then, recalls his wife and childhood friend Vasantha.
But the nearly decadelong incarceration at the Nagpur Central jail have left him a broken man physically. “It is a miracle I am alive”, is how he himself summed it after his release. The physical pain, though, has not broken his spirit.
“I am not in a position to sit or speak. I am in shooting pain,” he says recalling his days in the “dystopian” cell of Nagpur jail without proper medical care, where he had to be carried to the toilet by fellow prisoners.
Mr. Saibaba had suffered a polio attack when he was five years old.
Born into a poor peasant family in 1967 in Amalapuram in Andhra Pradesh, Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba studied at Sree Konaseema Bhanoji Ramars (SKBR) College in Amalapuram and obtained his Post Graduation in English from the University of Hyderabad. He completed his PhD in Delhi University.
From 2003 till his arrest in 2014, he taught English literature at Delhi University’s Ramlal Anand College.
His wife Vasantha recollects how even when they were teenagers, Mr. Saibaba was against patriarchy and opposed setting social norms for women on what to wear, how to behave. This is what drew her to him, she says and “then there was our shared love for literature”.
It was possibly this sense of justice towards other people which drew him towards tribal rights. The wheelchairbound professor was a prominent voice in the campaign against Operation Green Hunt, which was launched in 2009. He was also associated with various organisations like Forum Against War on People. His commitment to human rights is so strong that even while recounting his ordeal in jail he mentions how scores of undertrials are languishing in inhuman conditions.
Mr. Saibaba was first arrested on May 9, 2014 over his alleged links with Maoists. He approached the Bombay High Court, challenging his arrest and was given bail on medical grounds in 2015, but was back in jail again. In 2016, the Supreme Court released him on bail unconditionally. However, in 2017, a trial court in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, convicted him under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Though he challenged his conviction in Mumbai High court, he couldn't get bail due to stringent provisions of UAPA.
‘Dodgy evidence’
In October 2022, the Bombay High Court set aside his life imprisonment and concluded that the proceedings before the sessions court were “null and void”. But his acquittal was stayed by the Supreme Court, which observed that the High Court could consider the entire evidence in the case as well.
On March 5, 2024, the Bombay High Court observed that the evidence provided by the prosecution in the case against him lacks technical regularity and looks “dodgy”. Once again, the High Court acquitted him and he was released on Thursday. However, the Maharashtra government has approached the Supreme Court challenging his acquittal.
The case of the disabled academic who had been lodged in the veritable “Anda” cell also garnered global concern. Several international groups had written to then Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana in June 2022 to immediately grant medical bail to him.
In 2020, citing his “seriously deteriorating” health, a panel of experts with the United Nations OHCHR urged the government to immediately release him. Mary Lawlor, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights, has last year termed Mr. Saibaba’s detention as inhuman, citing grave concerns for his health.
Mr. Saibaba’s years in prison have not spared his family which has been managing with financial help from friends and wellwishers. He had been terminated from DU in 2021.
His colleagues now want him to be reinstated and compensated for the lost years of service following his acquittal.