Saibaba & Co could have been out of jail had surety been ready on Sat

Nagpur: It was a race against time for lawyers and kin to get Saibaba and five others, convicted in a case of Naxalism, out of jail after the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court acquitted them on Friday.
The first attempt (on Friday) to furnish surety to get their release failed, leading to a loss of one day. On the second day (Saturday), the lawyers again rushed to Gadchiroli where the surety had to be submitted in the sessions court to secure their release. By that time, the Supreme Court had suspended the HC verdict.
TOI spoke to Saibaba’s brother G Ramdevudu who shared details of the failed attempts to get his brother and others released. The high court proceedings began at around 10.30 am on Friday and soon the verdict was announced. The ruling called for the immediate release of all the convicts.
“A surety had to be submitted before the Gadchiroli sessions court which had convicted them. It was to be in the form of cash or property documents. We had arranged for both. We borrowed and got ready Rs 60,000 for each. Property papers were also arranged. However, the papers were incomplete. So cash was offered as surety, which was rejected,” said Remdevudu.
The members returned to Nagpur and went back to Gadchiroli on Saturday with proper documents. “We had documents for properties in Maharashtra as well as cash. We were hoping that the Supreme Court would rule in our favour but it was not to be,” said Remdevudu.
Even as opinions vary, a section of lawyers said theoretically Saibaba and others could have been out of jail if the release procedure would have been completed on Friday morning.
According to the procedure, the trial court has to issue a document which can be delivered at the jail by the kin or lawyer to get a convict released. “Normally the process of release starts in the morning,” said a lawyer.
Ramdevudu said they also requested the jail authorities to accept the document even after 5 pm in case they received it late, but it was in vain.