Former DU professor and noted human rights activist Dr G.N. Saibaba, who was jailed in connection with the 2014 Maoist links case, passed away on Saturday. He was 58.
Dr Saibaba, who was a former English professor at Delhi University, was admitted to Hyderabad NIMS where breathed his last around 9:00 PM. He was undergoing treatment for gall bladder infection and other complications when he suffered a cardiac arrest on Saturday night.
Dr Saibaba, a champion of tribal rights and critic of government regression, spent about a decade behind bars at the Nagpur Central Jail after he was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for having Maoist links.
In 2017, a sessions court in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district convicted Saibaba and five others, including a journalist and a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, for alleged Maoist links and for indulging in activities amounting to waging war against the country. He was accused of arranging a meeting of the other accused with members of the banned CPI (Maoist) and its alleged frontal organisation, the Revolutionary Democratic Front. Earlier, he was jailed from 2014 to 2016 before receiving bail.
He was acquitted by the Bombay High Court on March 5, 2024.
Dr GN Saibaba, who had permanent polio paralysis, hailed from Amalapuram in Andhra Pradesh’s Konaseema district. He taught at DU’s Ram Lal Anand College since 2003. He was suspended by the college in 2014 after being arrested in the infamous case. After completing his graduation from SKBR College, he joined the University of Hyderabad for his Master's degree. Later, Saibaba completed his PhD at DU.
Dr GN Saibaba is survived by his wife Vasantha Kumari.