NEW DELHI: "The last eight years have been the longest time we have stayed apart but I was sure that he would be acquitted one day," former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba's wife A S Vasantha Kumari said on Friday.
Saibaba was acquitted in a Maoist-links case by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday.
The court also ordered his immediate release from jail.
A division bench of justices Rohit Deo and Anil Pansare also allowed an appeal filed by Saibaba, challenging a 2017 trial court order that convicted him in the case and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Saibaba, who is wheelchair-bound, is currently lodged in the Nagpur central prison.
"Sai and I are childhood friends. But in the last eight years, we were separated. This is the longest we have stayed apart," Vasntha Kumari told PTI.
Saibaba, who was serving as an assistant professor of English in Delhi University's Ram Lal Anand College, was also terminated from service by the college in March last year.
He was suspended by the college after his arrest by the Maharashtra Police in 2014.
Saibaba's wife and daughter were receiving half the amount of his salary since his arrest but then, his service was terminated last year.
Asked how they coped with his absence, Vasantha Kumari said, "Don't ask! There was a lot of struggle and patience in the last eight years. It was difficult for Sai also since his health deteriorated and he lost his job."
However, she said they had faith that he would be acquitted one day.
"We had faith that he would be acquitted because he did not do anything wrong. There was no crime and no evidence. I am thankful to the judiciary and all those who supported us. He is an intellectual and a professor who only knows how to read and pen his thoughts. He can only teach. It was a false case in which he was in jail," Vasantha Kumari told PTI over the phone.
The couple's daughter is currently pursuing MPhil from Jamia Millia Islamia University.
In March 2017, a sessions court in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district convicted Saibaba and others, including a journalist and a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, for their alleged Maoist links and indulging in activities amounting to waging war against the country.
The court had held Saibaba and the others guilty under various provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).