Order on appeal by Saibaba, others today

Nagpur: Five years after wheelchair-bound former Delhi university professor GN Saibaba and six others were convicted in a Maoism case, the order on their appeal against the lower court’s judgment would be pronounced on Friday. One of them, Pandu Narute, died in the jail last month.
The others jailed in the case are former journalist Prashant Rahi, Vijay Tirkey, Mahesh Tirkey and Hem Mishra. They were convicted in 2017 soon after which an appeal was filed in the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court against the original order. All, except Mahesh Tirkey, have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
In the meantime, the applications for suspension of the order were rejected. The plea for emergency parole during Covid was also turned down, said sources involved in the legal process.
Sai Vasanta, wife of Saibaba, said the family is worried about his health. “Before the arrest, at least his arms were strong enough to move the wheelchair. Now, the left hand has been paralyzed, with the right also partially affected. He needs two helpers to carry out his day-to-day work. He had also suffered from Covid in jail where he has spent seven years,” she said.
Later, the hearing was also affected due to Covid. Given the voluminous evidence, virtual hearing during Covid period was also not found to be easy.
After that hearings were held on daily basis from September 12 and continued till September 22 this year. The case was taken up after 3.30 in the afternoon each day going on till almost 8 in the night.
In the meantime, the court had also issued a direction that even a convict is entitled to get best of the medical facilities. This happened after Prashant Rahi’s daughter Shikha filed a plea in the high court about her father’s deteriorating health condition and that he needed services of a gastroenterologist. “The order has not been implemented by the jail authorities,” said Shikha.