Human rights activist and former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba died at a hospital in Hyderabad on Saturday. He was 57 years old.
Saibaba died of post-operative complications at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Science, PTI reported. Seven months earlier, he was acquitted in a case of alleged links with Maoists, and was released from jail on March 7.
The activist was admitted to the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Science last month for a gall bladder infection, which was treated surgically, the director of the institute, N Bheerappa, told The Hindu.
Bheerappa said that while Saibaba recovered well for two weeks, he suffered from underlying health conditions, including heart problems and blood clots. “One of these clots may have dislodged, likely leading to his death,” the medical institute’s director said.
Saibaba spent over seven years in jail in the alleged Maoist links case after he was first arrested in May 2014. In an interview with Scroll after his release, the activist – who was differently abled and used a wheelchair – said he was denied adequate medical care and dignified living conditions in jail.
The activist told Scroll that he suffered damage to his nerve system because of mishandling by the police when he was “kidnapped and arrested”, and that he acquired a heart condition after he was in jail. He said he had developed gall bladder stones because of the lack of eating for long periods of time.
Saibaba had been lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail since a sessions court convicted him on March 7, 2017.
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The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on March 5 acquitted Saibaba and five others in the Maoist links case, saying that the prosecution had failed to prove the allegations against him.
In 2022, the High Court had discharged him from a separate case in which he was accused of having links to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and a front organisation, the Revolutionary Democratic Front. However, the Supreme Court set aside the discharge order in April last year.
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Why is GN Saibaba being denied adequate medical care and a life of dignity in prison?
GN Saibaba’s long struggle for justice: Why the Bombay HC had to overturn his conviction – twice
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