Ex-DU Professor Saibaba’s body to be donated to hospital, says family

New Delhi: The body of former DU professor GN Saibaba who passed away in Hyderabad, will be donated to a hospital as he wished, said a statement issued by his family on Sunday.

Saibaba, 54, was released from a Nagpur jail after 10 years, in March this year. He was released after being acquitted by the High Court in an alleged Maoist links case.

Saibaba's body will be kept at Jawahar Nagar, Hyderabad, for his relatives, friends and well-wishers to pay homage, on Monday. Afterwards, his body will be donated to a hospital as per his wishes. His eyes have already been donated to LV Prasad Eye Hospital, the family said in a statement.

The former professor who taught English at Ram Lal Anand College of Delhi University (DU) passed away on Saturday due to post-operative complications, seven months after he was acquitted in the alleged Maoist links case.

He was terminated from service by the DU and his official accommodation was taken away after he was arrested in 2014.

Saibaba's death will continue to weigh heavily on public conscience, said Prof Saikat Ghosh, one of the few DU teachers who raised his voice against his imprisonment and the treatment given to him in the jail.

"The sad thing is that nobody will be held accountable for pushing him and his family to such a catastrophic end," he said.

Saibaba was a popular colleague in the Literature fraternity of Delhi University. The popularity stemmed from his dedication as a teacher and his devotion to the issues of democratic rights and civil liberties, Ghosh said.

It took Saibaba 10 years to prove that he was not guilty. He inspired many and his demise is a "big loss," said DU Professor Abha Dev.

"One can only try to imagine his hardships with 90 per cent disability. The country does not know how to celebrate these stories to inspire others but they fear the truth that he was speaking," said Dev.

Another DU Prof Monami said Saibaba's friends and well-wishers were disheartened by the news of his demise.

"He just came out a few months ago and left so soon. But he was mentally a strong person," she said.

Saibaba was lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail since 2017 after his conviction by a trial court in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district. Before that, he was in prison from 2014 to 2016 and was subsequently granted bail.

Saibaba had alleged in August this year that he was not taken to a hospital for nine months by authorities despite the left side of his body getting paralysed and was just given painkillers in the Nagpur Central Jail.