SC rejects Maharashtra government plea to stay activist GN Saibaba’s acquittal in Maoist links case

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition filed by the Maharashtra government seeking a stay on the Bombay High Court’s March 5 verdict acquitting former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba and five others who were accused of having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), PTI reported.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta, while hearing the Maharashtra government’s special leave petition, said that the Bombay High Court’s order was “prima facie well reasoned”.

Saibaba was first arrested in the case in May 2014 but was granted bail twice. He had been lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail after a sessions court convicted him on March 7, 2017.