Fr.Stan Swamy’s Death: Hold the System Accountable
On reading Fr.Stan Swamy’s life and work, the design of his arrest and the death foretold in judicial custody, make one indignant about the role of partisan police, the politicized National Investigating Agency (NIA) and the insensitive and unresponsive judicial system. His death is not only an outcome of a hostile political climate, where civil society activists are painted as anti-national; but also of a broken judicial system.
On October 8, 2020, Fr. Stan Swamy, tribal rights activist, was arrested in Ranchi by the NIA in the Elgar Parishad case under the anti-terror law UAPA, accusing him of conspiring to overthrow the Indian state in collusion with the banned outfit CPI (Moist). It was shocking because he was not even present at the Elgar Parishad, Pune, on December 31, 2017, which the Police alleged led to the Bhima-Koregaon( a place he never visited in his life time) clashes the following day-January 1. Soon after his arrest he was directly sent to Taloja jail in New Mumbai, without transit warrant. The Police didn’t seek his custody even for a day to interrogate and instead he was incarcerated for 9 months, despite multiple ailments. His repeated applications for bail on health ground were rejected.
The new MVA government in Maharashtra wanted to review the Bhima-Koregaon case in which some 17 public spirited activists, including Professor Sudha Bharadwaj-who cofounded the Persecuted Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee (PPSC) along with Stan Swamy- were wrongly implicated and imprisoned, without trial for nearly three years. And in a surprise political move, in order to preempt the Maharashtra government’s decision to review the case, the Union Home Ministry divested the case from the state Police and entrusted it to the NIA on January 24, 2020.
On October 6, two days before his arrest, Stan Swamy said:”Whatever is happening to me is not something unique to me alone. It is a broader process that is taking place all over the country… prominent intellectuals, lawyers, writers, poets, activists and students' leaders all of them are put in jail because they have expressed their dissent or raised questions about the ruling powers in India. I am happy to be part of this process, because I am not a silent spectator.” In the context of Jharkhand state, he was raising the issues of displacement, land alienation because of mining, factories, townships, dams and inadequate compensation to the affected people. He was fighting for the tribal rights in the states of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal.
He filed a PILin Jharkhand High Court against the previous state government on behalf of some 3000 young adivasis, languishing in prison for years, asking for all under trial prisoners to be released on personal bond and their speedy trial. And as he said, “ this, I believe, is the main reason why the state is keen to put me out of the way. The most feasible way is to implicate me in serious cases and stall the judicial process to give justice to the poor innocent adivasis.” He was an activist for most of his life, and used the legal system to fight for the rights of those marginalized sections who were being unfairly targeted.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor reacted: “The news from India is devastating. Fr Stan has died in custody, nine months after his arrest on false charges of terrorism. Jailing HRDs is inexcusable. “ The UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet said she was disturbed and saddened by the news of Stan Swamy’s death and demanded release of all co-accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case pending trial.
The leaders of 10 opposition parties, including Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, M.K.Stalin, Hemant Soren, Sitaram Yechury and D.Raja. in their letter July 6, 2021 to the President have demanded accountability. The letter reads: ”We the undersigned leaders of major opposition parties …in deep anguish expressing our intense grief and outrage at the death of Father Stan Swamy...The 84 years-old Jesuit priest and activist who championed the rights and cause of the adivasis in far flung areas of Jharkhand was jailed on trumped up charges under the draconian UAPA and was sought to be linked with Bhima-Koregaon case...We are urging your immediate intervention to direct ‘your government’ to act against those responsible for foisting false cases on him, his continued detention in jail and inhuman treatment. They must be held accountable.”
Stan Swamy was obviously framed. The revelations by the US firm Arsenal Consulting , based on new digital forensics report ,that the computers of Bhima-Koregaon case accused were hacked to plant evidence to use in the prosecution’s charge sheet, are too serious charges that require investigation. In another curious development, Sudha Bharadwaj’s lawyer told Bombay High Court that the Additional Sessions Judge K.D. Vadane, who passed 90 days extension order in 2018, for her detention and filing of charge sheet, was not a special judge, as required under UAPA, to pass the order and that the Pune Police approached him rather than the designated special judges. The High Court has sought the state government explanation.
It is one thing to say about the ‘shrinking of civic space in India’, under the present political dispensation, and another thing to say about the callousness of the judiciary. While the police and the investigating agencies have abused their position to subserve the partisan ends, the collective failure of the judicial system to protect the rights of citizens is inexcusable.
A.P.Shah, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, holds the judiciary responsible for the death of Stan Swamy. In his piece Darkness at noon, felled by the judiciary (The Hindu 8/7), he indicts the judiciary: “Repeated pleas for medical assistance by Fr.Swamy were consistently ignored or dismissed. Medical reports taken on record clearly showed that Fr. Swamy’s disease, and could not even do basic tasks such as holding a spoon, writing, walking or bathing...Every regular bail application that was filed by his lawyers was unequivocally rejected...this demonstrates a lack of sensitivity on the part of the judges, which is deeply saddening…”
Continuing his scathing attack on the judiciary he asks-
“Why is the political establishment, and the police, so emboldened to pursue cases under UAPA against individuals like Fr.Swamy? A key reason, undoubtedly, is the weak judiciary we have today. Indeed, our judiciary today suffers from a great many flaws besides mere weakness…The most flagrant abuse of the UAPA, and constant rejection of bail applications of those accused as a mean of silencing opposing voices can be seen in the Bhima-Koregaon cases, including Fr.Swamy’s case, as well as the cases pertaining to protests against the Citizenship(Amendment) Act, where mere thought elevated to a crime...But as a consequence of UAPA being applied , the accused cannot even get bail ”, as if the Executive and the Judiciary are acting in tandem to crush legitimate dissenting voices. And he concludes his piece with a prophetic statement: “Posterity will blame the judiciary for the incarceration and unfortunate death of Fr. Swamy and the continued imprisonment of so many others like him. “
It is preposterous to deny bail to a priest in his eighties, having serious ailments, who has been a passionate crusader for social justice, as if he would flee the country or go underground. In his last appearance, via video conference, before Bombay High Court on May 21, describing how his stint in jail had enfeebled his ravaged body, he said: “I was brought healthy to Taloja jail eight months back but over the period all my body functions have deteriorated. I cannot eat on my own, can’t bathe or walk unsupported. I will possible die here, very shortly.” And yet the High Court too wasn’t sensitive enough to release him on bail, and grant his final wish to be in Ranchi.
It is imperative to probe the complicity of the state, the police and the NIA, to fix accountability and punish those responsible for falsely implicating Stan Swamy and keeping him in jail, ultimately leading to his death. It is a blot on the Indian nation.
System is always wrong!
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