5 accused including ex-professor GN Saibaba acquitted

The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has acquitted former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba and five others of all charges. The court has ordered his immediate release from jail. A bench of Justice Rohit Dev and Justice Anil Pansare also ordered their immediate release. Five years ago, a lower court in Maharashtra had convicted him and the other five in a Maoist-linked case. The court had sentenced all of them to life imprisonment under UAPA. Against which Saibaba filed a petition in the Bombay High Court.
The High Court has ordered five other convicts Mahesh Tirkey, Pandu Narote, Hem Mishra, Prashant Rahi and Vijay N. Tirkey also be acquitted. One of the five accused, Pandu Narote, had died a month and a half ago. He was 33 years old and had swine flu. His lawyers had accused the Nagpur Central Jail of not providing health facilities on time. The court ordered the immediate release of all of them unless they were accused in any of these other cases.
In 2012, Saibaba, Jawaharlal University (JNU) student Hem Mishra, former journalist Prashant Rahi and the other two were accused of having links with Revolutionary Democratic Front, a banned Maoist organization. After which all of them were arrested in 2013. Saibaba was a professor at Ramlal Anand College, Delhi University. DU's Ramlal Anand College suspended Professor GN Saibaba after his arrest in 2014. The police claimed that Naxal literature was recovered from them. Saibaba also surrendered on 23 December 2015.