After topping graduation from Sree Konaseema Bhanoji Ramars (SKBR) College in Amalapuram, Saibaba completed MA in English from University of Hyderabad and PhD from Delhi University in 2013.
He became drawn to Left ideology since his youth and was arrested by Andhra Pradesh Police several times. Saibaba was also a founder of All India People’s Representation Forum (AIPRF), an NGO that helped the jailed poor access legal aid.
According to chargesheets filed by police in Maharashtra Maoist den Gadchiroli, the 57-year-old professor was active in connecting like-minded communist organisations in India and abroad, and that his writings spread from the jungles of rebel redoubt Abujhmad to Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Operating under pseudo names like ‘Prakash’ and ‘Chetan’, Saibaba was the brain behind many attacks on police and was entrusted with the task of recruiting youths in their fight against the democratic system, as per police chargesheets.
He joined Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF) in 2005 — an outfit banned by the Andhra Pradesh govt for subversive activities — and shot into limelight after forming a panel in the name of late Anuradha Dhande, a Maoist Central Committee member. He had also organised a lecture in her memory at Delhi’s JNU in 2010, as per Gadchiroli police.
Later, the DU teacher allegedly helped form the Committee for Release of Political Prisoner (CRPP) with the help of RDF. In this period, he visited UK, US, Holland, Germany, Brazil and Hong Kong to meet like-minded individuals and organisations and cement ties with their Indian fellow travellers. In Germany, he participated in a programme organised by Marxist and Leninist organisations.
Gadchiroli police claim Saibaba once sent an aide, Hem Mishra, to Ballarshah with a microchip and digital (SD) card containing confidential information. It was allegedly meant to be handed over to dreaded Naxal leader Narmada Akka (who expired in April this year). But the plan was foiled after Mishra’s arrest.
The DU professor was arrested by Gadchiroli police on May 9, 2014, from his Delhi residence following a warrant from a Gadchiroli court under UAPA.
Since then, Saibaba’s attempts to get bail failed several times, in spite of pleas that the long incarceration had worsened his medical condition and pushed up his disability to 90%.