Got paralysed in jail, officials didn't take to hospital: Prof Saibaba

Hyderabad: Acquitted in an alleged Maoists links case, former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba said that he was not taken to a hospital for nine months despite the left side of his body being paralysed while being lodged at the Nagpur Central Jail. He said that he was just given painkillers, PTI reported.

The former English professor, who was arrested by Maharashtra Police in May 2014 from Delhi for his alleged links with Maoists, claimed he was "kidnapped" and arrested by the police in order to silence his voice.

In March of this year, the Bombay High Court set aside Saibaba's life sentence, noting that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. He was subsequently released from the Nagpur Central Jail.

Saibaba had been lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail since 2017 after his conviction by a trial court in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district. Before that, he was in prison from 2014 to 2016 and was subsequently granted bail.

Narrating his experiences, the former DU professor, who depends on a wheelchair for mobility, told mediapersons here that he was warned by authorities that if he did not stop "talking" he would be arrested under some false case, though he did not succumb to the pressure.

He said a case was foisted against him, and he was arrested.

He alleged he was "kidnapped" from Delhi and arrested by Maharashtra Police. Senior officers of Maharashtra Police, along with an investigating officer, went to his house and threatened him and his family, he alleged and said there were other agencies also which accompanied the Maharashtra Police, though they did not reveal their names.

He alleged the Maharashtra Police dragged him out of the wheelchair during the course of his arrest. As a result, a serious injury was caused to his hand, and it also impacted the nervous system.

The wheelchair was also broken, he said. "Nagpur Medical College doctors recorded the injury caused to him and submitted a report to the High Court in this regard," he added.

"As such, I am not able to walk due to polio; I was dumped in a broken wheelchair and lodged in jail (after his arrest). Even in jail, they didn't do anything (about my health condition). I was not taken to hospital for nine months, though the left side of my body got paralysed. They just gave me painkillers only. No doctor visited me," Saibaba said, recalling his incarceration at the Nagpur jail.

He maintained that though he was not subjected to physical torture at the prison, they created such conditions.

Saibaba said after he was arrested in Delhi, he was produced before a magistrate in Gadchiroli in Maharashtra and taken to a prison in Nagpur.

He claimed that the police did not even seek his custody from the court. "Though I volunteered to be in police custody, the investigating officer said it was not necessary. When I asked the police why they had not sought custody, they said they didn't have to ask him anything because he hadn't committed any crime," he said.

According to him, even the magistrate wondered why the police did not seek his custody.

Saibaba, who was lodged in 'anda' cell during incarceration at Nagpur jail, further said, "There was lack of oxygen in the anda cell. I am the only one lodged in a cell of Nagpur jail for nine years; even the biggest gangsters would be lodged in the cell only for one or two years. Lodging in a cell would result in mental imbalance."

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 links and for indulging in activities amounting to waging war against the country.