NEW DELHI: Former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba's wife A S Vasantha Kumari on Wednesday expressed her faith in judiciary and said her husband will come out of jail soon as they have a "strong case on merit grounds".
She also highlighted Saibaba's frail health, saying he is in wheelchair and requires constant care.
"Saibaba is 90 per cent disabled and suffers from a number of critical ailments. For a disabled person, a single year in jail is equal to 10 years," Kumari said, ruing that it has been the longest the couple has stayed apart since they met at the age of 15.
"We are childhood friends. We have never stayed apart for this long. But we are only separated physically, our hearts are bound together," she told PTI over phone.
Kumari's remarks come on a day the Supreme Court set aside a Bombay High Court order acquitting the former Delhi University professor in a Maoist links case and remanded it back to the high court for fresh consideration on merits within four months.
A bench of top court Justice M R Shah and Justice C T Ravikumar directed the chief justice of the Bombay High Court to place Saibaba's appeal and that of the other accused not before the same bench which had discharged them and the case be heard by another bench.
Talking about the case against her husband, Kumari said, "We have a strong case on merit grounds. I have faith that we will win the case and that he (Saibaba), along with others, will be acquitted. The case has dragged on for quite a long time now."
She also alleged that Saibaba's condition has deteriorated during his incarceration.
"My husband's health is deteriorating. He is not getting treatment. We have been fighting a long legal battle. He needs two helpers for his work. What he has been through is violation of rights of the disabled. One has a right to life," she asserted.
Kumari said after Saibaba contracted coronavirus, his health further deteriorated.
"After he contracted COVID-19, he has twice been infected by swine flu. His right hand is partially functional, while the left hand is completely paralysed. It is extremely difficult for him to sit, lie down and even use the washroom. He is also a cardiac patient," she added.
Kumari is likely to meet her husband on Friday.
The top court had on October 15 suspended the Bombay High Court order acquitting Saibaba and others in the case.
More than eight years after his arrest in 2014, the Bombay High Court on October 14 last year acquitted Saibaba and ordered his release from jail, noting that the sanction order issued to prosecute the accused in the case under the stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) was "bad in law and invalid".
The Nagpur bench of the high court allowed the appeal filed by Saibaba challenging a 2017 order of the trial court convicting and sentencing him to life imprisonment for offences under provisions of UAPA and the Indian Penal Code.
Apart from Saibaba, the Bombay High Court had 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, is currently lodged in the Nagpur central prison.