Maoist connection usual charge to suppress activists: AB Bardhan

NEW DELHI: Veteran communist leader AB Bardhan condemned the arrest of Delhi University professor GN Saibaba and demanded his immediate release, saying Maoist connection was a "usual charge" to suppress Left and social activists.

Maintaining that Saibaba is "a 90 per cent disabled man" and is being kept "in a non-descript prison under most unhygienic condition" in Gadhchiroli, he said, "Connection with the Maoists is the usual charge under which social and Left activists who oppose all police repression on tribals and other affected people under the guise of 'Operation Greenhunt' are arrested and harassed."

Demanding his release, Bardhan said in a statement that he should also be "allowed to resume his duty in Delhi University."

"The manner in which police swooped down upon Saibaba at his residence and spirited him away in the dead of night to the farthest corner of Maharashtra, deserves strong condemnation," the senior CPI leader said.

Observing that Saibaba, who has been deprived of his usual medication, has threatened to go on hunger-strike, Bardhan said, "I know from long experience how such hunger- strike in prison can tell upon a person's health, particularly a disabled man like Professor Saibaba."

He also sought that Saibaba be granted all required facilities and shifted to proper accommodation forthwith.
Meanwhile, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) today condemned the arrest of Saibaba and demanded intervention by National Human Rights Commission to ensure his release.

"PUCL demands that NHRC should immediately intervene in the matter of arrest of Saibaba, launch a comprehensive inquiry into the flagrant illegalities committed by the Gadchiroli police and fix accountability on the police officials who have abused and broken the law of the land," a PUCL statement said.

"In view of the severe 90 per cent locomotor disability and cardiac problem suffered by Prof. Saibaba, the NHRC should immediately intervene to get him released from prison so that he can get expert medical attention and utilise the services of a personal attendant," the statement said.