The Maharashtra Police on Thursday questioned Delhi University professor GN Saibaba for his alleged links with Maoists, the second time in three months.
A police team from Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, hotbed of Maoist activities, quizzed Saibaba, an English professor with Delhi University, for several hours since early this morning after it had conducted a forensic analysis of his computer seized in mid-September last year, official sources said. This was the second time in three months that Saibaba was quizzed by the Mahararashtra Police for his alleged links with Maoists.
The name of Saibaba cropped after the arrest of a Jawaharlal Nehru University student Hem Mishra who had claimed before the probe agencies that he was acting as a courier between the professor and banned cadres of Maoists holed up in Abujmad forests in Chhattisgarh, they said. The sources said some of the documents recovered from the computer were shown to the professor besides being questioned about his association with cadres of the banned outfit.
Accused of acting as an overground worker for the banned outfit, police alleged the professor runs an organisation which was acting as a front for CPI-Maoist, a charge denied by Saibaba. The questioning continued till 5 PM. Police claimed that besides Mishra, two other arrested Maoist leaders Kobad Gandhy and Bacha Prasad Singh have also named Saibaba as their contact in the national Capital. The police action against Saibaba has come under criticism from his colleagues. later in a statement, Saibaba said the “The Maharashtra Police interrogated me at my residence today for over four hours from 1.00 pm onward. They sought information and clarifications regarding my political activity as well as my academic interests. I extended my cooperation to the fullest and answered their doubts and questions to the best of my abilities and without any restraint. I hope that I have satisfactorily addressed all their concerns and that the matter will be laid to rest now,” the statement said.