Former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba along with four others were sentenced to life in jail by the Gadchiroli court on Tuesday under Sections 13, 18, 20, 38, 39 of UAPA and 120 B of the IPC, said advocate Barun Kumar, who represented them in the court along with advocate Surendra Gadling.
The sixth accused was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
GN Saibaba and five others, including JNU student Hem Mishra, former journalist Prashant Rahi, Vijay Tirki, Mahesh Tirki and Pandu Narote, were arrested by Maharashtra police on charges of having link with Maoists.
Arguments for the quantum of the sentence will begin at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, The Hindu reported.
Professor Saibaba, who is 90 percent orthopedically disabled, was arrested by the Gadchiroli Police of Maharashtra on 9 May 2014. He had been incarcerated in a solitary high security ‘unda’ cell in Nagpur Central Jail till he was granted bail in July 2015.
G N Saibaba, an Assistant Professor of English at Ram Lal Anand College of University of Delhi, has been suffering from permanent post-polio paralysis of the legs since the age of 5. According to reports, he also suffers from acute cervical and lower lumbar spondylitis, multiple cramps in his hands due to weak muscles along with hypertension and has a history of severe cardiac arrest.
