It’s by chance I came out of prison alive: Saibaba after release

FORMER DELHI University professor G N Saibaba, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment over his alleged Maoist links, was released from Nagpur Central Jail on Thursday morning, two days after his acquittal by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court.

Addressing media persons on Thursday, the nearly 57-year-old wheelchair-bound Saibaba said that it was a wonder and “by chance” that he came out of prison alive. “My health is very bad. I cannot talk. I will have to first take medical treatment, and then only I will be able to speak,” Saibaba told media persons after coming out of the jail on Thursday morning.

Hours later, while addressing media persons in Nagpur, Saibaba thanked his legal team for “bringing out truth and facts” to get justice and said life in prison was “brutal”.

"Notonce,buttwicethehigher judiciary confirmed that this case was without any legal basis and ten years of my and my co-accused's lives have been lost. As a professor, I was at the peak of my profession and I was away from mystudentsandclassfortenyears with an inhuman and brutal kind of life in prison. There was no accessibilityandicouldnotmoveon myown.icouldnotgotothetoilet and I could not go to take a bath without support. It is a wonder, it is only by chance that I came out oftheprisonalivetoday.therewas everychancethatiwouldnothave come out," Saibaba said while addressingmediapersonsinnagpur.

Saibaba also said he was “sad” that Surendra Gadling, his lawyer during the trial in the case, was behind bars in the Elgaar Parishad case. “the only reason (for his arrest) is he defended me during the trial and that is the only reason he was arrested... During my trial he (Gadling) was threatened and indications that he would be incarcerated were visible,” he said.