Mumbai: Tribal rights activist and Father Stan Swamy, who was arrested by the NIA and lodged in Mumbai’s Taloja Jail, passed away on Monday at 1:30 pm, the hospital sources said. He was 84.
As the bench comprising Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar took up Stan Swamy’s bail application at around 2.30 PM, Senior Advocate Mighir Desai, his counsel, said that the doctor who was treating the jailed Jesuit priest wanted to say something.
“It is with a very heavy heart I have to inform you that Father Stan Swamy has passed away”, Dr Dsouza of Holy Family hospital Mumbai, where Stan Swamy was admitted for treatment, told the bench. “On Saturday he went into cardiac arrest at 4.30 am, we couldn’t revive him”, the doctor added.
In May, Swamy was shifted to the Holy Family Hospital from Taloja Central Jail for treatment as per orders by the Bombay High Court. He continued to be critical in intensive care, Live Law quoted his counsel in June, when the high court bench met to review his medical condition.
Swamy was imprisoned in relation to the Bhima Koregaon case on allegations that Swamy is a member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), and was involved in a conspiracy to instigate caste violence.
In Taloja jail, Swamy endured severe health issues and torture. When he sought a straw and sipper in prison that were seized during his arrest citing hand tremors because of his Parkinson’s disease, the NIA court had rejected his plea. It was noteworthy that the court took 20 days to even listen to his submission.