Prof. G.N Saibaba, Assistant Professor at Ramlal Anand College, Delhi University was arrested by the Maharashtra police on 9th May at the university campus. After months of alleged suspicion of Saibaba’s naxal and maoist links, he was finally held by the police while he was on his way back home after the examination duty at Daulat Ram College.
After his arrest on Friday, Vasantha (Saibaba’s wife) got a call from the police personnel who informed her about her husbands arrest and nothing else. According to the sources, Saibaba has been taken to the Nagpur jail. His supporters which include family, students and teachers in Delhi have been really worried about Saibaba and his health as he is wheel-chair bound.
Members at Delhi University Teacher’s Association (DUTA) expressed their support for Saibaba and they feel that the laws have been violated by the police each time in this case. Member at DUTA told DU Beat, “Last year when they seized Saibaba’s belongings, nothing was sealed and they had months to alter these belongings and create evidences against him. His wife and other members were locked and now he has been taken away without any information.” Saibaba is the Deputy Secretary of Revolutionary Democratic Front, an organisation which has been on the radar of intelligence agencies for suspected links to Maoists.
Back in September 2013, Saibaba was targeted for the first time when a search warrant was issued for his residence. Police seized a laptop, three hard-disks, four pen drives, one micro-chip, a SIM card, mobile phones of Saibaba?’s daughter, two old phones and some booklets from the house. There was a suspicion then, that he sent some secret information to the Maoist leadership hiding in the forests of Abuj Maad in Chhattisgarh.
Once again in January 2014, Saibaba was dragged through a question answer round at his residence by the Gadchiroli Police. As per the statement of Saibaba, the police had sought information about his political activities and academic interests in around 600 questions and this interrogation went on for 4-5 hours.
The name of Saibaba had come into picture when a Jawaharlal Nehru University student Hemant Mishra was arrested and he claimed that he was acting as a link between Prof. Saibaba and Maoists. Says Amit Bhaduri, Professor Emeritus at JNU a close friend and supporter of Saibaba, “We don’t even know anything about Hemant Mishra. We first of all thought that it is a kidnapping case, but when we came to know that Gadchiroli police had taken him away, we were outraged. He has always cooperated and this is a not the kind of treatment he deserves. He is a handicapped person after all, he can’t run. Police should handle the matter in an orderly manner.”
Post his arrest, Prof. G.N Saibaba’s supporters have been making attempts for his release. Nandita Narain, President at DUTA says, “We wrote a letter to the Home Ministry and also to the Lt. Governor. He is a civil activist and never approved of anything that is violent. Whatever he does is his fundamental right and we shall conduct a meeting to draft a support plan in this regard.”
Further,a group of students from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University staged a protest recently demanding the immediate release of the professor. A memorandum was also submitted regarding the same which was addressed to Prithviraj Chauhan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
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