Photo of Elderly Jail Inmate in UP Shared as That of Stan Swamy

The photo doesn't show Father Stan Swamy, but a murder convict from UP.

After the death of 84-year-old tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy, who passed away as a pretrial prisoner on Monday, 5 July, a photo started circulating on social media with a claim that it showed the octogenarian, chained to his bed in the hospital.

However, we found that the elderly man in the photo was a murder convict, who was chained while during treatment in hospital, in Uttar Pradesh's Etah district this year.

Father Stan Swamy was arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case in October 2020.

CLAIM

The photo has been shared online with many claiming it to be the photo of the late activist.

Indian Youth Congress (IYC), Karnataka, also shared the photo and wrote that Stan Swamy fought for the rights of the adivasis and may he be at peace.

Several social media users have also shared the claim and the archived links can be accessed here, here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

On conducting a reverse image search on Google, we found a story by NDTV that reported that a 92-year-old prisoner, Baburam Singh, a convicted murdered, was chained to his hospital bed while during treatment in Etah district, Uttar Pradesh, in May this year.

After the photo went viral, UP Additional Director General (Jail), Anand Kumar suspended warden Ashok Yadav.

Further, we found a tweet by Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) member Kavita Krishnan where she had shared a picture of Father Stan Swamy.

There’s a pic of a 92 yr old man in UP shackled in a hospital bed - which is being falsely circulated as one of Fr Stan. Here’s a real pic of Fr Stan in Holy Family hospital, with retd Principal of St Xavier’s College Fr Frazer Mascarenhas SJ. Holy Family gave Fr Stan loving care pic.twitter.com/3mYbmK0Wmo

— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) July 5, 2021

The Bombay High Court was scheduled to hear Swamy's bail plea at 11 am on Tuesday, but he suffered a cardiac arrest on Sunday and passed away on Monday.

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