High Court asks Maharashtra to reply to Saibaba’s emergency parole

To attend his mother’s post funeral rites.

The wheel-chair bound Prof. Saibaba had earlier sought parole from the prison authorities to meet his mother in Hyderabad, but it was rejected. File

The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government to reply to the emergency parole filed by wheelchair-bound GN Saibaba convicted for Maoists links.

Prof. Saibaba, 50 is sentenced to life imprisonment and is incarcerated at the anda cell in the Nagpur Central Jail. He is 90% physically disabled and wishes to attend his mother’s post funeral rites at Hyderabad who died on August 1 .

Last week, the prison authorities rejected his parole application for attending the last rites of his mother. The Bench has directed the government to reply to his plea and adjourned the matter to August 18.

On April 21, he moved the High Court for an emergency parole to go visit his mother who was on the death bed. On May 22, a Division Bench of Justices RK Deshpande and Amit Borkar rejected the plea, primarily in view of the fact that the place in Hyderabad where he intended to visit has been declared a containment zone amidst the Coronavirus outbreak.

On July 28, a Division Bench of justices ZA Haq and SM Modak rejected the criminal appeal filed by Saibaba. He was seeking suspension of his sentence and or temporary medical bail for 45 days due to the COVID-19 outbreak inside the prison. The government had previously informed the court that prison administration is taking every effort to provide all necessary health services.