Father Stan Swamy: human rights defender who was the 'oldest person charged with terror in India'

Battling Parkinsons and other age-related ailments, 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy, who died in incarceration on Monday, was reportedly the oldest man to be charged with terrorism in India.

The government accused the tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, who worked for the poor and downtrodden for decades, of being a member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

In jail, in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case from over past nine months, the Roman Catholic priest, who was a member of the Jesuit order, had reportedly fainted many times in custody, particularly after recovering from Covid-19, but the government on several occasions opposed his bail pleas citing threat to the nation.

Father Stan Swamy, was arrested on October of 2020 from his home in Ranchi and the National Investigation Agency had booked him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged role in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence.

The caste-clash in the small but historical village of Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra had unfolded on the New Year’s Day of 2018 when people were commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. Lower caste communities had backed the British who won against the upper caste Peshwas, the resultant caste-tensions continue to prevail.

The police first booked two members of an upper caste Hindu right wing group but days later claimed that there was a large conspiracy by Maoist groups to stoke violence and that clash took place due to an event held on last day of 2017 called the Elgar Parishad.

The NIA soon took over the probe and in its charge-sheet named eight people, including Father Stan Swamy, for their alleged involvement in inciting a mob to violence in Bhima Koregaon.

Swamy was questioned multiple times by the NIA which also alleged that Swamy was a convenor of Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee that the government claims is a frontal organisation of CPI (Maoists).

Swamy was born on April 26, 1937 in Tamil Nadu's Trichy and was inspired by the work of the Jesuit priests. In 1957, at the age of 20, Swamy started pursuing religious studies and committed himself to the cause of the poor and downtrodden. In January 2021, Swamy, the oldest man in India to be booked for terrorism, was awarded the Mukundan C Menon award for human rights.