Former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba, who spent a decade in prison over alleged Maoists links before being acquitted earlier this year, passed away late Saturday evening.
The 57-year-old died following post-operative complications after undergoing surgery for gallbladder stones. The wheelchair-bound Saibaba had been undergoing treatment at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad, where he was admitted 10 days ago due to ill health.
His aides said he suffered a heart attack around 8 pm and was declared dead at 8:30 pm.
A former professor of English, Saibaba was acquitted by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on March 5, and released from Nagpur Central Jail on March 7.
Speaking to The Indian ExpressDeepak Kumar, a close family friend who helped the family take care of Saibaba and who was also a part of the Defence Committee that was campaigning for his release, said, “I dropped him at the airport in Delhi on September 18. Two days before this, he was suffering extreme pain in the gallbladder. We took to a hospital in Vasant Kunj and also to AIIMS but we finally decided to admit him to NIMS in Hyderabad as we had family there and thought it would be a time taking procedure.”
“He always spoke about getting his health better and getting back to his work for human rights. He also wanted to teach. His gallbladder was removed early this month; the surgery was successful and he was recovering. When I last spoke to him on October 6, we sounded alright. He asked me about a recent protest I had held, but his health started to derail around October 7,” Kumar said, adding that Saibaba had been having fever since Friday night.
Saibaba was also actively fighting legally to get his job back at Delhi University, close aides told The Indian Express. The last hearing of the case was in September this year.
Nandita Narain, a former DU professor and a close family friend, said, “What is even more unfortunate is that he had just come back home after being acquitted and things were getting back to normal. ”
“He was a brilliant man and it’s so sad to lose him. We need to keep his legacy and his courage alive,” Narain said, adding that she had been in touch with the family since he was admitted to NIMS 10 days ago.
Saibaba was arrested on May 9, 2014. He and several others had been picked up by the Gadchiroli police in Maharashtra on allegations that they were members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and its frontal group Revolutionary Democratic Front.
Saibaba was accused of arranging a meeting of the other accused — JNU student Hem Mishra and Uttarakhand-based journalist Prashant Rahi — with members of the banned outfits.
Through his time in prison, his family and friends had pushed for his release, insisting that his health was deteriorating rapidly.
A Division Bench of Justices Vinay Joshi and Valmiki SA Menezes set aside the life imprisonment sentence imposed on him and also acquitted five others accused in the case. The bench said it was acquitting all the accused as the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt against them.
When The Indian Express met him after his acquittal, Saibaba had said, “I lost much more than 10 years I spent in jail”.
“Except for bail periods that together lasted less than a year and a half, I have spent this past decade in the Anda Cell,” he had said. In the Anda Cell, there is usually only one inmate per cell, but prison authorities got two of Saibaba’s co-accused, Pandu Narote and Mahesh Tirki, to share the cell with him and help him out since he was confined to a wheelchair — a polio infection when he was five had left him paralysed waist down.
