MUMBAI (UCAN): The verdict on the bail application of 84-year-old Jesuit Father Stan Swamy was postponed again on March 16 by the special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) based in Mumbai, India (Sunday Examiner, January 31, February 28).
“The frequent postponements have disappointed us,” said Father A. Santhanam, a Jesuit lawyer based in Tamil Nadu state who is closely following the case.
The court completed hearings on the application on February 12 but scheduled the order for February 16 and then moved it to March 2. It was postponed again to March 16 but has now been moved to March 22.
“We are hopeful that the court will stick with the March 22 date and release its order,” Father Santhanam said, observing that the court seems to be using different excuses to delay pronouncement.
He said they can “take the next legal steps only after the court’s order … even if it is a negative order.”
The priest noted that Father Swamy was arrested on October 8 last year and was charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), making it almost impossible to gain bail.
Father Swamy is among 16 people arrested and jailed after being linked to a riot in Bhima Koregaon village in Maharashtra state on 1 January 2018. A 16-year-old boy was killed and and some 20 people injured.
The police claim those arrested linked with a banned Maoist group to organise the violence and conspired to bring together Dalit and Muslim forces to thwart the federal government of prime minister, Narendra Modi.
Father Swamy’s colleagues point out that he was based in Jharkhand state and has not visited Maharshara in decades. However, he was among leaders who campaigned against two new legal amendments to protect tribal people’s land rights.
Massive demonstrations in 2019 forced the Jharkhand government, at the time led by Modi’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to withdraw the amendments.
Since his arrest in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand state, Father Swamy has been detained in a Mumbai jail.
Media reports show that all the arrested are human rights activists who at some point opposed the policies and programmes of BJP-led governments in the Indian states or in New Delhi.
Church groups have continued demonstrations and prayer services for the release of the priest and other activists jailed with him.
Some 300 people in Arunachal Pradesh state walked 16 kilometres on March 13 to draw public attention to the plight of Father Swamy and 15 others.
“We are using this pilgrimage to pray for all innocents who are languishing in different prisons in the country,” Father Felix Anthony, parish priest of the Sacred Heart Church who organised the event, said on March 14.
The latest international demand for the priest’s release came from United States (US) representative, Juan Vargas, who wanted US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to take up the case.
Vargas, a Democrat, raised the issue before the foreign affairs committee that held a hearing on foreign policy priorities for the administration of president, Joe Biden, on March 10 media reports said.
