'Denied Parole to Visit My Dying Mother': GN Saibaba Shares His Ordeal in Prison

The former DU professor was released from Nagpur Central Jail on 7 March after spending almost 3,600 days in prison.

When GN Saibaba entered the press conference hall in his wheelchair in HKS Surjeet Bhawan, New Delhi, a couple of his friends sitting in the crowd of reporters raised their fists. Saibaba smiled instantly and raised his fist in return.

The former Delhi University professor was released from Nagpur Central Jail on 7 March, two days after his acquittal, after spending almost 3,600 days in prison.

"The Delhi press is familiar to me but today, after seven years, I think to myself, where am I? I cannot understand, because I still feel that I am in my 'anda' cell (a high-security prison cell, so called because of its oblong shape). I am not able to come to terms with reality, even after 24 hours of release. I am not able to adjust to the surroundings."

These were Saibaba's first words at the press conference during which he spoke about his struggle in prison. Others in the panel included his wife Vasantha Kumari, co-accused Hem Mishra (a former Jawaharlal Nehru University student) and his father, Communist Party of India general secretary D Raja, Delhi University professors Nandita Narain and Karen Gabriel, and National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled general secretary Muralidharan.

The other co-accused in the case who have been acquitted are Mahesh Kariman Tirki, Pandu Pora Narote (now deceased), and Prashant Rahi, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, and Vijay Tirki, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail by a special court in 2017.

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice BR Gavai will hear on 11 March an appeal filed by the Maharashtra government against the acquittals.

'My Trial By Fire'

GN Saibaba was arrested in 2014 and subsequently convicted for life under the UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act] in an alleged Maoist-links case. In October 2022, the Bombay High Court ordered his discharge and immediate release. However, before he could step out of jail, the Supreme Court suspended the High Court order.

Then in April 2023, the matter was sent back to the Bombay High Court. But this different bench too found no cause to hold him back. 

Talking about the judiciary's role, Saibaba said:

"There was no relief even after a court discharged me. It was like Sita's agnipariksha (trial by fire). We had to go through it twice. Sita faced it once. We had to do it twice. It was not just an agnipariksha for me, it became an agnipariksha for the higher judiciary. One judgment acquitting us was not enough. The court delivered justice, though delayed. There is an old adage that justice delayed is justice denied."

Perhaps the two most hard-hitting aspects of Saibaba's imprisonment were related to his health and his ailing mother. After talking for more than 40 minutes, he could not hold his tears back any longer as he spoke about how he was denied permission to visit his dying mother.

"Being a disabled child, my mother took me in her arms to school, so that her child could get his education. I was not allowed to see her before her death. I was denied parole. After her death, I was denied parole to attend her funeral."

Indeed, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court, while rejecting Saibaba's plea for emergency parole, had stated, “The communication sent by the Superintendent, Nagpur Central Prison, to the SPP says Saibaba is placed inside a high-security cell in a separate wing and looking at the background of the petitioner, it would not be safe to direct release of the petitioner on emergency parole.”

Saibaba is 90 percent physically disabled and has been wheelchair-bound since contracting polio as a child. “Except for the polio that I’ve had since my childhood, I went to jail without any health issues. But today, I am in front of you alive, though each and every organ is failing me.”

He went on to explain how his cellmates had to carry him even for the most basic tasks.

"As a human rights activist, I have taken on the suffering of poor people as my suffering. But when I was thrown into jail, they took on my suffering. There was no accessibility in my cell, there was no separate toilet. There was one hole but the wheelchair could not reach. So, two Adivasi boys (one of them being co-accused Pandu Narote who died before the acquittals) literally carried me to the toilet every time, to bathe me as well. I can’t do anything without being lifted, not even going to talk to the police or the prison hospital. How many times will the boys lift me? I could not even go and get a glass of water. Wheelchairs do not move in the cell. How many years can one live life like this?"

Complete Negligence by Prison Authorities

Saibaba also explained how the authorities did not let the medicines sent by his wife reach him, and how they have not followed any of the directives provided by government doctors. 

"The doctors have prescribed several things, like how monitoring of my heart should be done. It has been four years, still not done. Another doctor has said sleep apnea. It has been seven years. No tests have been done. The doctors have directed the surgical repair of nerves and muscles for my pain. This has not even been discussed or planned,” he alleged.

[The Nagpur Central Jail is yet to put out a statement in response to Saibaba's allegations. The story will be updated as and when a response is provided.]

Two more people warrant a mention. The first is Surendra Gadling, a lawyer who defended him in the trial court but is currently imprisoned in the Elgar Parishad case.

"Today he is behind bars for only one reason, because he stood for me. He fought for me in the sessions court. He, an experienced human rights lawyer, argued so well in front of the court, that there was nothing left in the case. And during the trial, certain police officers threatened him, 'After Saibaba, we will see you.' And within months of my conviction, Sudheendra was arrested in another case. He is still languishing in jail."

The other was Narote, an agricultural worker and a member of a scheduled tribe from Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli, who contracted swine flu in jail and died as a prisoner in August 2022. You can read more about his tragic case here.

"The first question he (Narote) asked me on 7 March 2017 when we were brought together in one cell, was about what the word 'judgment' meant. He did not know anything about the law. He belonged to a very primitive tribe. He never went out of his village. He died in front of my eyes, and despite many reminders, he was not taken to the hospital when he was bleeding from his eyes and urine. A few minutes before his death, he was taken to the hospital."

During the press conference, Saibaba thanked the press for supporting him “by supporting truth and facts”. He concluded it by thanking the United Nations, the UN Human Rights Defenders Council, the Disabilities Council, and the European Union Human Rights Commission for supporting his cause.

When asked if he would go back to his profession of teaching, Saibaba said, "I have been a teacher all along. Without students, without teaching, I cannot survive. I can only survive by continuing to teach."