Maharashtra cops search DU professor’s house,claim he had info for Maoist leaders

But Saibaba told The Indian Express that “police had barged into his house” and were already there when he reached in the afternoon. “They could have planted material in my house,” he said.

Police seized a laptop,three hard-disks,four pen drives,one micro-chip,a SIM card,mobile phones of Saibaba’s daughter,two old phones and some booklets from the house.

“When I returned home around 3 pm,there were around 50 police personnel at my house. Saying they had a search warrant,they barged into the house. Apart from my family — my wife and daughter — the driver too was locked in the house during the three-and-half-hour search,” he said.

Saibaba,who is wheelchair-bound,is the deputy secretary of Revolutionary Democratic Front,an organisation which has been on the radar of intelligence agencies for suspected links to Maoists.

Police said they searched Saibaba’s residence in Gwyer Hall area of North Campus based on disclosures made by former journalist Prashant Rahi who was arrested by Gadchiroli police last week.

Police said Rahi was arrested after the questioning of JNU student Hem Mishra who was held in the Aheri area of Gadchiroli a fortnight ago.

“When Hem Mishra was arrested,we recovered a coded message. He told us that he had been asked by Rahi to deliver the message to Maoist chief Ganapathi. When we arrested Rahi he told us that he had been sent by Saibaba to meet the Central Committee (CC) members. We also recovered some documents from Rahi which were prepared by Saibaba,” Ravindra Kadam,DIG,Gadchiroli Range,said.

Saibaba also objected to the content of the search warrant and the objects which were seized from his house.

“The search warrant says that my residence was used as a place for deposit of property stolen from Aheri. None of the items which they took away has anything to do with Gadchiroli. I live on the university premises,they didn’t have permission from the university for the search,” he said.