The Supreme Court on Saturday suspended the Bombay high court order acquitting former Delhi University (DU) professor G N Saibaba and others in a Maoist-links case.
The top court rejected Saibaba’s request to order his release from jail due to his disability and health conditions and put him under house arrest after the Maharashtra government opposed the prayer, saying nowadays there is a new tendency of “urban naxals” to seek house arrest.
The high court had acquitted Saibaba and others in the case on Friday.
An apex court bench of justices M R Shah and Bela M Trivedi, which sat on a non-working day to hear the matter, rejected Saibaba’s request for putting him under house arrest in view of his physical disability and health conditions.
“We are of the opinion that it is a fit case for exercise of power under section 390, CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) and suspend the impugned order of the high court,” the bench said.
It stayed the release of all the accused in the case, including Saibaba, from jail, as directed by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court.