NIA court refuses bail to Jesuit Priest Stan Swamy

New Delhi, Mar 26: The National Investigating Agency (NIA) court refused bail to the influential Jesuit priest and activist Stan Swamy as there was prima facie evidence about his being actively associated with the proscribed Maoist organization. Swamy, an 83-year-old priest was charged in the Elgar Parishad case.

It may be mentioned that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), a top body of the Catholics in India, has launched an agitation all over the country for the release of Stan Swamy. Protest demonstrations were organized in many countries across the world and the Indian Church leaders has made this as an issue of Christian exploitation by the government of India. Due to this, the UN Human Rights Commission has demanded to release all the accused along with Father Stan Swamy held in this case.

Rejecting the bail application of Stan Swamy the NIA Special Judge D E Kothalikar asserted that on the basis of the material on record it is apparent that the accused “hatched a serious conspiracy to create unrest in the entire country and overpower the government, politically and by using muscle power”.

The Judge further observed: “The material placed on record thus prima facie denotes that the applicant was not only the member of banned organization CPI (Maoist) but he was carrying out activities further in the objective of the organization which is nothing but to overthrow the democracy of the nation.”

The NIA court also took into consideration Stan Swamy’s communication with his co-accused via e-mails, his reference to his co-accused as “comrades”, and receiving a sum of Rs. 8 lakh from a fellow “comrade” named Mohan, allegedly for the furtherance of Maoist activities.

Father Stan Swamy is a Jesuit priest and the Jesuits world over act on the directives of the Vatican. They have their network in about 100 countries of the world. Father Stan Swamy had been active since last many decades in the tribal dominated areas of Jharkhand and has developed close association with the CPI(M). He was arrested under the UAPA act as he was found involved in terrorism related acts.

According to the NIA, Stan Swamy was a key conspirator in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case of 2017, which witnessed violence, stone-pelting, and arson at Shaniwar Wada in Pune. He was arrested on October 8, 2020 from Ranchi and produced before the Special Court in Mumbai the following day. Interestingly, he was never put under police custody and was instead remanded to judicial custody at Taloja Central jail. The NIA had informed that all legal formalities, including medical examination, were undertaken.

As per the Central investigative agency, Stan Swamy is a ‘hard-core CPI (Maoist) activist’ who had received funds from other Maoists for furthering the activities of the banned outfit. He is also the convener of PPSC. “Incriminating documents related to communications for furthering the activities of the banned terrorist organization CPI (Maoist) were seized from his possession,” the NIA emphasized.

The Special Public Prosecutor had opposed Stan’s bail, citing Stan’s involvement with the Communist Party of India (Maoist). The Prosecutor told the NIA court that Stan Swamy was staunch supporter of organization involved with the Maoists. The NIA Court accepted the Prosecutor’s contentions and rejected Swamy’s bail application.

On refusal to grant bail on health grounds, the NIA court cited Supreme Court precedents and observed, “If seriousness of the allegations made against the applicant are considered in proper perspective, in that case there will be no hesitation to conclude that the collective interest of the community would outweigh the right of personal liberty of the applicant and as such the old age and or alleged sickness of the applicant would not go in his favor, so that the discretion to release the applicant can be exercised in his favor.”