Mumbai: A special NIA court here on Monday rejected the bail plea filed by tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
Additional sessions court judge DE Kothalikar rejected bail pleas of 83-year-old Swamy on merits as well as on medical grounds.
Swamy, a Jesuit priest and activist, was arrested from Ranchi in October 2020, and has since been lodged at the Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai.
In his plea, Swamy had said he was suffering from Parkinson's disease and has lost the ability to hear from both his ears. He had also stated that while in the Taloja prison, he had to be shifted to the prison hospital owing to his ill health.
Swamy had stated in his bail plea that his arrest was "uncalled for" and "malafide". He also said that his custody was not sought for over two years after the FIR was filed, which showed that he was not considered a flight risk or someone who would tamper with evidence.
The 31-page bail plea, filed through his lawyer Sharif Shaikh in November, had also said that Swamy has been targetted by the investigating agency due to the "nature of his writings and work" about "caste and land struggles of the people in India and violation of the democratic rights of the marginalised citizens of India".
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had opposed Swamy's bail plea saying the probe had revealed that Swamy was a staunch supporter of organisations such as 'Vistapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan' and 'People's Union for Civil Liberties', which were working as "fronts of the CPI(Maoist)".
Swamy also said in his plea that his name was not even part of the original FIR but it was added in the remand application in 2018 by the police as a suspected accused. Swamy said he worked for Dalits and Adivasis and not for Maoists.
Shaikh had said the NIA had failed to find anything incriminating against Swamy in the raids conducted at his home in Ranchi.
Special Public Prosecutor Prakash Shetty, who appeared for the NIA, opposed Swamy's bail application, saying he was involved with the banned Communist Party of India (CPI) (Maoist).
Shetty said Swamy was a staunch supporter of organisations such as Vistapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan and People's Union for Civil Liberties involved in activities for CPI (Maoists).
The NIA also claimed that it had found incriminating material on Swamy's laptop.
It said the agency had evidence to prove that Swamy was involved in the conspiracy.
Swamy's previous medical emergency bail plea on the ground that he was susceptible to contract Coronavirus while in prison, was rejected by the NIA court soon after his arrest. Swamy then filed the present bail plea in November 2020.