- Tuesday, May 07, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
STANISLAUS Lourduswamy, better known as Stan Swamy, an octogenarian priest-activist who was arrested under the anti-terror law in the Elgar Parishad case in 2020, passed away in judicial custody on Monday (5) in the middle of his battle for bail on health grounds. Swamy was being treated at the Holy Family Hospital in Mumbai in the western Indian state of Maharashtra following a court order in May.
The 84-year-old activist tribal-rights activist, who was jailed in a prison, spent the last few months of his life fighting the legal battles for even small needs. In December, he was allowed to have a straw and sipper in jail that he requested since he could not hold a glass because of Parkinson’s disease.
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“He (Swamy) did not recover and passed away this afternoon,” the official told the court. The cause of the death is pulmonary infection, Parkinson’s disease and post COVID-19 complications, he said. Swamy’s counsel Mihir Desai said there was negligence on part of the prison authorities, who failed to provide immediate medical attention to Swamy.
Swamy’s arrest was highly criticised
In June, the National Investigation Agency which arrested Swamy in October last year from his home in Ranchi in a late-night swoop that was criticised severely. His arrest came in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case of January 2018 and he was charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and anti-terror law called Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly furthering the cause of the Maoists through various civil rights organisations that he was associated with.
It was only recently that Swamy had filed a fresh plea for bail in the Bombay High Court in which he challenged the stringent conditions for bail that apply to an accused charged under the UAPA. He also had complained of medical negligence in the prison, especially in times of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Swamy, a Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit order who was born in Tiruchirappalli in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, had also been a former director of the Jesuit-run Indian Social Institute in Bangalore in the state of Karnataka between 1975 and 1986. He had spent decades fighting for tribal rights.
