By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: The denial of bail to Father Stan Swamy continues to evoke condemnation even as the court claimed it has found evidence to prove the 83-year-old Jesuit tribal activist had conspired to overthrow the government.
Special judge D E Kothalikar of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court rejected Father Swamy’s bail plea on March 22 but his order was made available a day later.
The order says the bail was refused based on the material on record that indicated Father Swamy was a member of the banned Maoist organization that had hatched a “serious conspiracy” to create unrest in the country and to overthrow the government.
The court referred to around 140 e-mails between Father Swamy and his co-accused where they addressed each other as “comrades.” Father Swamy had also received 800,000 rupees from one comrade, Mohan, allegedly for the furtherance of Maoist activities, the judge said.
“Prima facie it can be gathered that the applicant along with other members of the banned organization hatched a serious conspiracy to create unrest in the entire country and to overpower the Government, politically and by using muscle power,” Judge Kothalikar said in his order.
Jesuit social scientist Father Cedric Prakash dismissed all this as “absolute nonsense” and asserted that to “accompany the poor and the vulnerable, the exploited and the excluded in their quest for a more humane and just society and fully within the framework of the Constitution is not about overthrowing any government.”
Father Prakash pointed out this was the second time the NIA court denied bail to the Jesuit priest. The earlier rejection was on October 23, 2020, when Father Swamy sought the bail on health grounds.
Swamy was picked up from his home near Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, on October 8, 2020, by a team of NIA officials from Delhi. He was then flown to Mumbai the same evening. His arrest had sparked an outrage across the country, evoking criticism from several circles.
Father Swamy was the 16th person to be arrested in the Bhima Koregaon violence case. They were all arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the anti-terror law UAPA.
Father Prakash termed the bail denial as a “sad and painful” development hat spoke “volumes of the heartlessness that still abounds in a highly unjust legal system.”
He points out that Father Swamy has labored all his life to accompany the Adivasis and other excluded groups in their quest for justice, equity and dignity. “He has worked relentlessly within the Constitutional and democratic framework of the country,” Father Prakash told Matters India.
Sister Sujata Jena, a human rights activist and a lawyer, says she was pained to hear the rejection of Father Swamy’s bail application.
“The Preamble of our Constitution declares that justice is the first thing that the state seeks to secure. Yet, it appears now that power is all that matters. This suggests that a large number of Indians have lost faith in the judicial system,” said the member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Maintaining that she is inspired to follow Father Swamy’s footsteps, Sister Jena expressed the hope that he may be acquitted soon.
Loreto Sister Edelin Kujur, social Worker in Kolkata, said she stood for Father Swamy “in faith and conviction” and added, “The truth will set you free.”
Quoting the biblical verse that a grain will remain single unless it falls into the ground and dies, Sister Kujur assured the Jesuit priest that his sacrifice for the poor and the marginalized will not go in vain.
“You are a living saint who is experiencing suffering, rejection, mockery and false allegations,” she added.
Jesuit Father Arockiasamy Santhanam, secretary of the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests, says the bail rejection has disappointed “everyone who fought and prayed for Father Swamy’s release for the past 150 days.”
He says the court has failed to see that Father Swamy is suffering from multiple health issues because of age and recent surgeries.
“He is not a man who would run away from legal process and he had been continuously cooperating to any investigation either by the Mumbai police or by NIA,” Father Santhanam explained.
According to him, bail is a right of a person awaiting trial. “Unchecked and unending judicial custody should not be a punishment for the unproved allegations on anyone,” he told Matters India.
Valeria Méndez de Vigo, Advocacy and Network coordinator of the Jesuits’ Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat, termed the bail rejection “incredible” and “outrageous.”
According to the Spanish laywoman, the only “crime” of Father Swamy has been to defend the rights of the Adivasis for more than 40 years.
“However, as he himself says, he preferred not to be a silent spectator and continue speaking out for justice. This is not an isolated case either, because there are also many other human rights defenders in prison- 16 for the Elgar Parishad case and many others,” Vigo said.
She also regretted that in India anybody who dissents government policies publicly could be imprisoned under UAPA draconian laws.
Vigo said they will continue their struggle for Father Swamy’s release at the international front, “advocating in many different countries with our governments and political representatives, as well as with the European Union and the United Nations so that justice finally may prevail.”