8 years of agony, anticipation: Ex-Delhi University professor GN Saibaba’s wife

NEW DELHI: She spent eight years that were emotionally challenging to the extreme, when even a phone call from the lawyer sent her heart into palpitations. That is why AS Vasantha Kumari, wife of GN Saibaba, former professor of Delhi University, was so relieved on Friday.
The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court acquitted the academic in a case related to Maoist links and ordered his immediate release from jail.
"After eight years of agony, anticipation, pain and fear, we are very happy that my husband can finally reunite with his family," was Vasantha’s first reaction to the court’s order.
Before heading to Nagpur to meet her husband, she said, "We are happy about the judgment. We thank the judges. We are also thankful to all those who stood with us through tough times.”
In March 2017, a sessions court in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district had convicted Saibaba and some others for alleged links with the outlawed Maoist groups and held them guilty under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code.
"Every time the advocate called, I got very nervous,” Vasantha told TOI. “Trauma and fear hung over our family. What news about him will we now hear? What worse turn will the case take? These years were painful and stressful not just for him, but also us."
Vasantha claimed that her husband, who has 90% disabilities, further damaged his body due to the prolonged jail stay. "Despite being 90% disabled, he never used to ask for help to manage his needs. His hands worked fine and he sat on a wheelchair or got up on his own,” she said. “But after his arrest, his left hand muscles were damaged and he lost the use of that limb. His right hand, too, is partially paralysed. UAPA broke him."
Vasantha’s immediate plan is to restore Saibaba to health. "First, we have to admit him to hospital for proper treatment. In prison, he got infected with Covid and his health deteriorated,” she said. “When people living at home struggle to cope with the after-effects of the virus, imagine what my husband must be going through.”
There were health implications for the incarcerated academic in May too, when he went on a hunger strike in the jail in protest against the installation of a CCTV camera in his anda cell, so called because its egg shape offers better viewing for monitoring. He said the CCTV camera intruded into his privacy when in the toilet or the bathroom.
"An anda cell is a torture cell,” declared Vasantha. “His intellectual freedom and expression were trampled to death. Besides his health, he has also lost years of academic life and the potential to achieve so much.” Thankful that Saibaba survived even in such extreme conditions away from his family, the wife finally felt the pressure ease on Friday just as a certain prisoner would also have felt in Nagpur.