The Bombay High Court on Tuesday acquitted former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba, who was arrested for Maoist links, and other co-accused in the case and allowed their appeals against convictions.
A division bench of Justices Vinay G Joshi and Valmiki SA Menezes had concluded the hearing and reserved its judgment in September last year.
The appeals were filed by Saibaba, Mahesh Tirki, Hem Mishra, Pandu Narote and Prashant Rahi, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, and Vijay Tirki, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail by a special court in 2017.
The men were arrested in 2013 by the Gadchiroli police in Maharashtra over allegations that they were members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and its frontal group Revolutionary Democratic Front. While Vijay is out on bail, Narote passed away in jail in 2022. The rest of the four convicts, including Saibaba, were ordered to be released from Nagpur Central jail.
