The Maharashtra police arrested Delhi University professor GN Saibaba in Delhi on Friday for his alleged links with Maoists. He was apprehended for allegedly aiding the banned organisation, CPI (Maoist), with logistical support and extending support for recruiting members for the organisation.
A police team from Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra, a place infamous for Maoists activities, arrived in Delhi on Monday morning to arrest the professor.
According to them, the English professor, who hails from East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, was arrested for allegedly running an orgnaisation which was acting as a front for the banned outfit. The police claimed that the accused was questioned more than four times in the last six months before restoring to the arrest.
Confirming this, Gadchiroli Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ravindra Kadam said, “We have arrested Professor GN Saibaba this morning in Delhi and he will be brought to Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, after taking transit remand in a Delhi court.”
According to the official sources, the professor’s name cropped up after the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Hemant Mishra, who had claimed that he was acting as a courier between the professor and Maoists hiding in Abujmad forests in Chattisgarh.
In addition to Mishra’s revelation about Saibaba’s connection with the Maoists, three other Maoist leaders, Kobad Gandhy, Bacha Prasad Singh and Prashanth Rahi, also named Saibaba as their contact in Delhi, the police said. The Gadchiroli police had already seized the computer of the professor for forensic analysis.
Meanwhile, the Revolutionary Democratic Front, protesting the arrest of the professor, has claimed that the case against him was fabricated. The Front accused the Maharashtra police of paying scant attention to the fact that the professor was 90 percent disabled and was on a wheelchair when he was pushed into a police vehicle unceremoniously.
“This stealth and dastardly abduction of a university professor smacks of the desperation of the Maharashtra police and violates the basic human right of an upstanding, democratic voice in this country. This abduction, it is believed, is with regards to a fabricated case against the professor,” the Front said.