The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Monday rejected the bail plea filed by Jesuit priest Stan Swamy in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
Judge D.E. Kothalikar held that Fr. Swamy was found in possession of objectionable material and there was sufficient evidence to connect him to the activities of the banned organisation.
While rejecting his bail, the court relied upon letters allegedly written by co-accused Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson.
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Fr. Swamy, 83, an activist, has been working with tribals since decades and is currently lodged at Taloja Central Jail after being arrested from Ranchi on October 9, 2020. He has Parkinson’s disease and has lost the ability to hear from both his ears and suffers from intense pain from lumbar spondylosis.
Special public prosecutor Prakash Shetty had previously pointed out that during the investigation it was established that Fr. Swamy was a staunch supporter of the activities of organisations such as Vistapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan and People's Union for Civil Liberties which are working as frontal organisation of CPI (Maoists).
Advocate Sharif Shaikh appearing for Fr. Swamy had previously argued that the prosecution had not brought anything on record to suggest that Fr. Swamy was involved in any kind of terrorist activity. Therefore, Section 16 (punishment for terrorist act), 20 (punishment for being member of terrorist gang or organisation), 39 (offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation) of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act were not applicable to him.
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