Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba was a scholar and human-rights activist who taught English literature at the University of Delhi. Polio contracted as a child had left Saibaba disabled below the waist. In 2014, he was arrested and accused of having links to outlawed Maoist groups. He was sentenced to life imprisonment under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in March 2017. In solitary confinement at the Nagpur Central Jail, his requests for bail or parole to undergo medical treatment were repeatedly denied. The Bombay High Court acquitted him of these charges in October 2022, but the Supreme Court suspended the ruling within a day, asking for him to be retried under a different bench. On 5 March 2024, Saibaba was acquitted a second time. The high court declared that the trial court’s judgement was a “failure of justice,” built upon shaky evidence and faulty procedure.
After Saibaba’s release, Shahid Tantray, a multimedia reporter at The Caravan, spoke with him about his incarceration and his political commitment to activism. Their conversation was spread across several meetings over two months, with more planned before Saibaba’s health took a turn for the worse.
Saibaba died on 12 October 2024, due to post-operative complications from a surgery to remove gallstones, first diagnosed under hospitalisation, while he was on bail in early 2017.
You were in jail for more than seven years, and in and out over nearly ten years. How did the jail authorities treat you? Were you tortured?