84-year-old tribal rights activist Stan Swamy dies in hospital waiting for bail

Mumbai: Tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, arrested under an anti-terror law in the Elgar Parishad case, died at a Mumbai hospital on Monday in the middle of his fight for bail on health grounds.

The 84-year-old Jesuit priest — possibly the oldest person to be accused of terrorism in India, as per his lawyer — had been on a ventilator since Sunday after his health worsened rapidly.

Dr Ian D'souza, director of the Bandra-based private Holy Family Hospital, where Swamy was undergoing treatment, and the tribal rights activist's lawyer Mihir Desai informed a bench of the Bombay High Court of his death following cardiac arrest.

The bench, comprising Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar, expressed shock over the news and said it was at a loss of words and hoped Swamy's soul would rest in peace.

Senior counsel Mihir Desai claimed the NIA had been negligent in providing timely and adequate medical aid to Swamy, and asked the HC to initiate a judicial inquiry into the circumstances that led to the undertrial activist's death.

He said Swamy was taken to the state-run J J Hospital 10 days before his admission to the Holy Family Hospital on May 29 but was not tested for COVID-19 at the J J Hospital.

Swamy's report came out positive for Coronavirus when he was tested at the private hospital, the lawyer said. "The NIA did not seek Swamy's custody even for a single day, but kept on opposing his bail pleas," he added.

Desai pointed out that since Swamy died while being in custody, the state authorities were mandated to conduct a post mortem in accordance with guidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

While the HC did not pass any orders initiating a judicial inquiry, it recorded in its order that the amended section 176 (1A) of the CrPC mandated judicial inquiry into every case of death in custody.

The court directed the state authorities to complete all formalities and hand over Swamy's body to his associate, Father Frazer Mascarenhas.

The directive came after Desai told the court that while normally a dead body was handed over to one's family, Swamy was a priest and had no family. 

The Jesuits were his only family, he said.

The HC said Swamy's funeral will be held in Mumbai in accordance with the COVID-19 protocols applicable in the city.

Condolences poured in for the tribal rights activist, with many bemoaning his demise.

Taking to Twitter, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said Swamy deserved justice and humaneness. Left parties too alleged that "inhuman treatment" was meted out to Swamy and demanded that all those responsible for his death be arrested. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said he was "deeply pained and outraged" over Swamy's death.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan have posted messages of tribute and condolences, as have Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Shashi Tharoor, and intellectuals and artists like TM Krishna. European Union's Special Representative for Human Rights Eamon Gilmore and United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders Mary Lawlor are also among those who have spoken out.

Lawlor tweeted, "The news from India today is devastating. Human Rights Defender and Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy has died in custody, nine months after his arrest on false charges of terrorism. Jailing HRDs is inexcusable."

Gilmore re-tweeted Lawlor's post and said: "India: I am very saddened to hear that Father Stan Swamy has passed away. A defender of indigenous peoples' rights. He was held in detention for the past 9 months. The EU had been raising his case repeatedly with authorities."

Swamy the oldest among the 16 accused persons arrested in the Elgar Parishad case and, possibly the oldest in India be charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Those arrested include some of India's most-respected scholars, lawyers, academicians, cultural activists, and an ageing radical poet, who then contracted Coronavirus in prison.

In November, Swamy, who suffered from advanced stages of Parkinson's disease and several other ailments, made three applications before the special NIA court, seeking directions to the NIA to provide him with a sipper and straw to help him eat. "I cannot hold a glass as my hands are unsteady due to Parkinson's," Swamy had said in his application.

The NIA had asked for four weeks to respond to Swamy's request.

In December, the NIA told both the special court and the Bombay high court that the state prison authorities had provided a sipper to him. "Not just sipper and straw, we are providing him other facilities too like a wheelchair, walking stick, walker, and two attendants were also provided to him," the NIA had told HC.

While in the Taloja prison, Swamy had written to his friends saying that other prison inmates helped him bathe and eat. My two inmates help out during supper, in washing my clothes and give massage to my knee joints, he wrote. They are from very poor families. Please remember my inmates and my colleagues in your prayers. Despite all odds, humanity is bubbling in Taloja prison, his letter read.

In May this year, Swamy had told the HC judges via video conferencing that his health had declined steadily while at the Taloja prison.

When I first came here, I could bathe, take a walk, write a bit, all by myself. But now, I need help with everything, he had said. On the NIA producing "some extracts" allegedly taken from his computer that pointed to his links with Maoists, Swamy had said they were "fabrications" that were "stealthily" put into his computer.

He had told NIA that his advanced age, health complications, and the raging pandemic would make it difficult for him to travel to Mumbai, and hoped "human sense would prevail.

The Elgar Parishad case is related to inflammatory speeches made at a conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which, the police claimed, triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.

The police had claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.