"Kidnapped" by police, no doctor visits, placed in 'anda' cell: Ex-DU Prof Saibaba recounts time in jail

Former Delhi University (DU) Professor GN Saibaba, who was recently acquitted in a case involving alleged Maoist links, said today, Friday, August 23, that he was not taken to a hospital for nine months despite suffering paralysis on the left side of his body. He claimed he was only given painkillers while in Nagpur Central Jail. This was stated in a report by PTI. 

Saibaba, arrested by Maharashtra Police in May 2014 from Delhi for his alleged Maoist connections, said he was “kidnapped” and detained by the police to silence him.

In March this year, the Bombay High Court overturned Saibaba's life sentence, stating that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. 

Saibaba was then released from Nagpur Central Jail, where he had been held since 2017 following a conviction by a trial court in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. He had previously been in prison from 2014 to 2016 before being granted bail.

Speaking to reporters, Saibaba, who now uses a wheelchair, described how he was warned by authorities that he would face arrest on false charges if he continued to speak out. He said he was arrested and accused in a fabricated case.

Furthermore, Saibaba alleged that Maharashtra Police “kidnapped” him from Delhi and that senior officers, along with an investigating officer, threatened him and his family. He claimed other unidentified agencies accompanied the police.

Additionally, he also accused the Maharashtra Police of dragging him out of his wheelchair during his arrest, which caused a serious hand injury and affected his nervous system. He said his wheelchair was damaged in the process.

“The doctors at Nagpur Medical College recorded my injuries and submitted a report to the high court,” Saibaba said.

He described being forced into a broken wheelchair and jailed without medical care. “I was not taken to a hospital for nine months, and the left side of my body became paralysed. They just gave me painkillers. No doctor visited me,” Saibaba added.

Although he was not physically tortured, Saibaba claimed that the conditions in jail were meant to cause suffering. He described being placed in the 'anda' cell, a high-security solitary confinement unit in Nagpur jail, where he suffered from a lack of oxygen. 

“I was the only one in the anda cell for nine years, while even the most notorious criminals are kept there for only one or two years. The isolation led to mental imbalance,” he said.

In March 2017, a sessions court in Gadchiroli convicted Saibaba and five others, including a journalist and a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, for alleged Maoist connections and activities deemed as waging war against the country.