People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) mourns the death of activist, teacher and poet GN Saibaba and condemns the state’s role in contributing to his early demise at the age of 57. Of the ten years since his arrest in May 2014 Saibaba spent over eight years in jail in a fabricated case under UAPA. He, and the five other convicted in the same case in 2017, had to be acquitted twice over before being released in March 2024. After the first acquittal in October 2022 by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, the Supreme Court accepted the Maharashtra Government’s appeal and re-sent the case to the High Court with curious alacrity, only for the High Court to acquit them again, this time on grounds of lack of evidence. These two years of pendency further delayed Saibaba receiving urgent medical intervention, worsened his already deteriorating condition and precipitated his demise. The Supreme Court denied the family’s plea for bail and house arrest during this period.
In these ten years, we witnessed how Saibaba was prosecuted without necessary sanction from the government and convicted on insufficient evidence, as mentioned in the two HC judgements. Noticeably while he was given bail on grounds of disability (with great difficulty) as an undertrial, once convicted in 2017 all medical bail pleas were turned down, including interim medical bail during Covid, which begs enquiry into the relation between courts’ attitudes to serious health concerns and a prisoner’s status. Saibaba was relegated for years to solitary confinement in Nagpur Jail. As a paraplegic with 90% disability, his confinement in the ‘anda’ cell represented the criminal callousness of prison authorities. His health swiftly deteriorated with complaints of partial paralysis and multiple organ failure while in confinement. He and his family drew attention to his severe suffering and constant pain, to no avail. At the time of release half his body was paralysed and vital organs severely damaged which was eventually the cause of his death. He was in the ICU following a gall bladder surgery and died due to complications arising from it on 12 October in NIM hospital in Hyderabad. Strictly speaking Saibaba’s was not a custodial death as he was out of jail, but the entire justice system – abysmal jail conditions, biased investigating agencies and arbitrary court rulings – is collectively accountable for his death.
Notably his fellow accused Pandu Narote died of swine flu in judicial custody in 2022 due to the jail authorities denying him requisite treatment. Narote’s death happened just before the first acquittal in this case was pronounced, in October 2022. Similarly, in July 2021, Stan Swamy died in judicial custody due to medical negligence. As an undertrial, he was repeatedly denied bail. We hold the entire criminal justice system including jails responsible for the deaths of Stan Swamy, Pandu Narote and Saibaba.
Saibaba and Pandu Narote’s incarceration in fake cases exposes the bogey of ‘urban Naxals’ constructed through false narratives of terror crimes and the politics of vengeance against political dissenters, fueled through UAPA. Under the Rule of Law and Principles of natural justice, PUDR demands accountability from state agencies for the unlawful incarceration and subsequent death of Saibaba through relegation to inhuman prison conditions and callous and active neglect. PUDR also extends heartfelt condolences to his partner Vasantha and daughter Manjeera, who valiantly fought tooth and nail for his life and liberty this past decade.
Joseph Mathai
Paramjeet Singh
(Secretaries, PUDR)
