Bhima Koregaon violence accused Stan Swamy passes away during imprisonment, informs lawyer

Father Stan Swamy, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon ‘Urban Naxal’ case, has passed away, his lawyer informed the Bombay High Court when the Court took up his bail plea.

https://twitter.com/LiveLawIndia/status/1411975101227044866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

According to his counsel, Stan Swamy suffered a cardiac arrest early morning on Saturday at 4:30 a.m., following which he passed away. The counsel demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter.

https://twitter.com/LiveLawIndia/status/1411975409688748041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The Court expressed shock and sadness at the death of Swamy. Earlier in March, while denying his bail plea, the NIA Court had said that Stan Swamy “hatched a serious conspiracy to create unrest in the entire country and to overpower the Government, politically and by using muscle power”.

“The material placed on record thus prima facie denotes that the applicant was not only the member of banned organisation CPI (Maoist) but he was carrying out activities further in the objective of the organisation which is nothing but to overthrow the democracy of the nation,” the Special Judge had said.

Arrest of Stan Swamy and his role in Bhima Koregaon violence

According to the NIA, Stan Swamy was a key conspirator in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case of 2017, which witnessed violence, stone-pelting, and arson at Shaniwar Wada in Pune. He was arrested on October 8 and produced before the Special Court in Mumbai the following day. Interestingly, he was never put under police custody and was instead remanded to judicial custody at Taloja Central jail. The NIA had informed that all legal formalities, including medical examination, were undertaken.

As per the Central investigative agency, Stan Swamy is a ‘hard-core CPI (Maoist) activist’ who had received funds from other Maoists for furthering the activities of the banned outfit. He is also the convenor of PPSC. “Incriminating documents related to communications for furthering the activities of the banned terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist) were seized from his possession,” the NIA emphasised.