The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday acquitted former Delhi University Professor G.N. Saibaba and five others in a Maoist links case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), saying the prosecution could not prove the case against them beyond reasonable doubt.
Within hours, the Maharashtra government approached the Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing, after it failed to convince the High Court to stay the implementation of the judgment.
A Division Bench of Justice Vinay Joshi and Justice Valmiki S.A. Menezes also set aside the life sentence awarded to Prof. Saibaba and the other accused — Mahesh Tirki, Hem Mishra, Pandu Narote, Vijay Tirki and Prashant Rahi — by a sessions court in 2017, and held the sanction for prosecution under UAPA as “null and void”.