A special NIA court on Friday, 23 October rejected the bail plea of 83-year-old Father Stan Swamy, arrested in connection with his alleged involvement in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence in Maharashtra.
Father Stan Swamy is a tribal activist and a Jesuit priest.
Swamy had filed the interim bail application on health grounds, citing his age and medical problems, and also COVID-19 pandemic.
Swamy was arrested from his home in Ranchi, Jharkhand by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 8 October. He was brought to Mumbai the next day.
Swamy’s arrest had sparked a nationwide outrage.
Swamy’s advocate Sharif Shaikh told the court that Swamy suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and he wasn’t even able to even sign documents when he was produced before the court by the NIA, Scroll reported.
Shaikh also said that Swamy has had surgeries before getting arrested and he had also fallen down in the jail. Shaikh had made the bail appeal on the humanitarian ground, Scroll reported.
NIA had alleged that Swamy is a member of banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), and he was part of a conspiracy to instigate caste violence in the Bhima Koregaon village near Pune in 2018. Swamy has said that he is being falsely implicated.
Father Stan Swamy was the 16th person to be arrested in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, in which people have been booked under various sections of the IPC and UAPA, reported NDTV.
(With inputs from Scroll and NDTV)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)