Former Delhi University professor Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba passed away on Saturday evening at the age of 57. He was undergoing treatment at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad after he had developed post-operative complications following a surgery for gallbladder stones.
The wheelchair-bound professor had been acquitted in a case of alleged links with Maoists just seven months ago after spending 10 years in prison.
He was admitted to NIMS 10 days ago due to ill health. He reportedly suffered a heart attack and was declared dead by the doctors at 8:36 pm on October 12.
Saibaba was arrested on May 19, 2014, when he was on his way home from Delhi University. A joint team of the Maharashtra police, Andhra Pradesh police, and the Intelligence Bureau had nabbed in connection with a case related to alleged ties with Maoist organisations.
Since then, he had been lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail till he was released in March this year. A bench of the Bombay High Court had acuitted him on March 5, 2024.
The bench comprising Justices Valmiki SA Menezes and Vinay Joshi had set his life imprisonment sentence aside and acquitted him the case. Five other accused were acquitted. The court acquitted them as the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt against all the accused.
Saibaba and five others including Mahesh Tirki, Pandu Narote, Hem Mishra, Prashant Rahi, and Vijay Tirki, were convicted by a Maharashtra sessions court in March 2017 for their alleged involvement in unlawful activities and links with the Maoists.
All of them including wheelchair-bound Saibaba were sentenced to life prisonment. However, Vijay Tirki, one of the accused, was sentenced to ten years in jail.
The professor was accused of setting up a meeting of other accused, Hem Mishra, a JNU student and Uttrakhand-based journalist Prashant Rahi, with the members of the banned CPI (Maoist) and the Revolutionary Democratic Front (its alleged frontal organisation).