Bhima Koregaon accused Stan Swamy no more; counsel informs Bombay HC hearing bail plea

In a tragic event on Monday morning, the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case accused Father Stan Swamy breathed his last at a Mumbai hospital where he had been admitted. Undertrial in the Bhima Koregaon case, Father Stan Swamy's counsel informed the Bombay High Court of his passing away on Monday as the court took up his bail plea for hearing. The octogenarian tribal activist had applied for bail on medical grounds after he was arrested on October 8, 2020 from his residence in Ranchi. 

Swamy had spent the last eight months in the Taloja Central prison before being shifted to the hospital as his condition deteriorated. As the bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar assembled on Monday noon to hear Stan Swamy's bail plea, his counsel sought the court's permission, stating that the doctor treating the Jesuit priest wanted to say something. 

Stan Swamy went into cardiac arrest

As per doctor Dsouza of Holy Family hospital, Stan Swamy suffered a cardiac arrest at 4:30 AM on Monday morning and the doctors could not revive him. The doctor said that Swamy was declared dead at 1:30 PM today. The Court has directed authorities to conduct his postmortem examination since he died in custody, and subsequently submit the report of the same before the bench. 

Stan Swamy, 84, was suffering from Parkinson disease and other geriatric ailments. While undergoing treatment at the Holy Family Hospital, he had contracted COVID-19, Charged with UAPA, Father Swamy had refused to get admitted to a hospital and sought interim bail from the Bombay High Court. 

As per the NIA's charge sheet filed on October 9, Swamy has been accused of being a member of CPI (Maoist) and a key conspirator of the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case. It alleged that the activist had propagated among other cadres that the arrest of the urban CPI (Maoist) members had caused "irrevocable damage" to the organisation. The central agency cited "incriminating documents" seized from Swamy's possession to claim that he received funds to further the activities of CPI (Maoist).

The Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case

Violence had erupted at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district on January 1, 2018, where supporters had gathered to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. This resulted in the death of one person and leaving several injured. Subsequently, the Pune police arrested activists such as Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, and Vernon Gonsalves, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale and P Varavara Rao for allegedly inciting the Bhima Koregoan violence through their speech at the Elgar Parishad meeting on December 31, 2017.