Plea for temporary bail rejected by Bombay HC to former DU professor GN Saibaba

BACKGROUND: 

• GN Saibaba, a former Delhi University professor was arrested back in 2014 for alleged links with Maoists and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 7 March 2017 for offences under section 13 and 18 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 along with section 120-B of the IPC
• A division bench of Justices AS Chandurkar and AB Borkar at Nagpur heard the application filed by Saibaba last month seeking temporary medical bail due to Covid-19 and a suspension of the sentence
• A previous application by Saibaba for suspension of the sentence was also rejected by  the High Court in an order dated 25 March 2019

GROUNDS & CONTENTIONS:

• Advocate NB Rathod appearing for Saibaba submitted that the present application seeking temporary bail has been filed majorly on 2 grounds after the previous application under 389 of the Act was rejected
• The first ground mentioned the release on temporary bail for a period of 45 days on account of the spread of Covid-19 likely to affect the applicant and the second ground being the deteriorating health conditions of the applicant including his mother
• Special Public Prosecutor P Sathianathan opposed the plea in view of the maintainability of a fresh applicable not being tenable when the earlier order dated 25 March  had not been challenged

ORDER OF THE COURT:

• The Nagpur bench at the Bombay High Court observed that since the earlier application under section 389 had not been challenged, it still holds the field
• The court further noted that the 90% disabled and wheelchair dependent applicant had tested negative for Covid-19 and no further details were set out in the application apart from the ailments
• The application was rejected by the court clarifying that the fresh parole application will be considered by the jail authorities