NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Saturday suspended the October 14 Bombay high court’s order discharging former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba and five others in an alleged Maoist links case.
The top court turned down the plea of Saibaba that he should be allowed to come out of jail and be put under house arrest. The court asked him to file appropriate application for bail.
Saibaba pleaded before the SC that he was wheelchair bound with 90 per cent disability and was not involved in activity of waging war against country as alleged. To this, the court said that generally in terrorist and Maoist activities brain is more important than physical strength.
The top court turned down the plea of Saibaba that he should be allowed to come out of jail and be put under house arrest. The court asked him to file appropriate application for bail.
Saibaba pleaded before the SC that he was wheelchair bound with 90 per cent disability and was not involved in activity of waging war against country as alleged. To this, the court said that generally in terrorist and Maoist activities brain is more important than physical strength.
An apex acquitted Mahesh Kariman Tirki, Pandu Pora Narote (both farmers), Hem Keshavdatta Mishra (student) and Prashant Sanglikar (journalist), who were sentenced to life imprisonment, and Vijay Tirki (labourer), who was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Narote died during the pendency of the appeal.
Saibaba, 52, who is wheelchair-bound due to a physical disability, is currently lodged in the Nagpur central prison. He was arrested in February 2014.
(With inputs from agencies)