Maharashtra Police's startling revelations may bring further infamy to the already-embattled Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Nagpur Range, Ravindra Kadam, has told Mail Today that a few students of the university had joined the underground Maoist cadre at the behest of arrested Delhi University (DU) professor GN Saibaba, currently lodged in Nagpur jail.

The Maharashtra Police have also said those students who joined the Maoists in their anti-state struggle were members of the Democratic Students' Union (DSU), the same students' body Umar Khalid, who the Delhi police want to question in relation to the Afzal Guru show case, had once been associated with.

Khalid was one of the organisers of the event to commemorate Parliament attack convict Guru and is also one of the five accused in the sedition case pertaining to the February 9 show on the JNU campus. At that event, hanged terrorist Guru was lauded as a "martyr" while anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans were allegedly raised.

Kadam told Mail Today that Professor Saibaba had been active with Left-leaning students of both JNU and DU and had been indoctrinating and recruiting them for the Maoist movement. Gadchiroli Police had arrested Saibaba in 2014 for his alleged links with Maoists.

"While Professor Saibaba was working in DU, he was also associated with students' activities in JNU and DU, especially the DSU. Saibaba used to guide students from these universities. In course of time, Saibaba had prepared and recruited four students as Maoist cadre," Kadam said.

Incidentally, the professor's name had cropped up during the interrogation of another JNU student, Hem Mishra, who was arrested by the Maharashtra Police from Gadchiroli district. Mishra too was a member of DSU.

The IGP also told Mail Today that one of Saibaba's recruits was Ritupan Goswami, a JNU scholar.

"One of them is Ritupan Goswami, a scholar who completed his PhD from JNU. He has already joined the underground cadre of CPI (M-L). He is not just a cardholder of the underground party, but also a functionary; he is the general secretary. All this has been corroborated in our investigation," Kadam said.

The police, however, refused to divulge the names of the other three. "We do not know who the three others are yet, but they also seem to be from DSU. Probably, all four are from JNU, but so far we are sure of Goswami having been a student of JNU. All this has been corroborated in our interrogation," the top cop said.

Meanwhile, Saibaba's wife denied that her husband had anything to do with recruiting or indoctrinating students on behalf of any organisation. "My husband did not indoctrinate or recruit students for any organisation. He was extremely popular among students across the country, students from both JNU and DU used to visit him. But, there was no recruitments for the Maoist movement," Saibaba's wife Vasantha Kumari told Mail Today.

According to the Maharashtra police, a parallel investigation has also been undertaken by the special cell of the Delhi police to look into the Saibaba case, but when Mail Today tried to get details, Special CP (Special Cell) Arvind Deep said he was not familiar with the case. Additional CP (Special Cell) did not respond despite multiple calls and messages.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Maharashtra government to look for an alternate arrangement to house the wheelchairbound Saibaba at Gadchiroli. He is currently lodged in Nagpur jail. The SC also directed the state to provide sufficient medical facilities to him. The bench fixed the matter for further hearing on February 29. By then the state government has to inform the SC about the facilities to be provided to Saibaba. During the hearing, the counsel for the state government said it would conclude the trial in a period of two months and asserted that he had not been kept in solitary confinement.

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