Swamy, arrested in October 2020, was the oldest prisoner charged under the UAPA. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was denied bail on medical grounds
Fifteen of the sixteen accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case, known as the BK-16, a moniker referring to the accused, went on a day-long hunger strike on Friday to mark the third death anniversary of Father Stan Swamy, the sixteenth accused, who died in prison, in July 2021, at the age of 84, awaiting bail. Read more
The Supreme Court has provided a timely reminder, as much to itself as to subordinate judiciary and the general public, that presumption of innocence and the right to a speedy trial cannot be counterfeited by ‘national security’.
IN a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has held that irrespective of the nature of the crime, an accused is entitled to a speedy trial.
The court has also remarked that “if the prosecuting agency and the court concerned have no wherewithal to protect the fundamental right to a speedy trial, then they should not oppose the bail petitions on the ground that the crime committed is serious.” Read more
Indian villagers vow to keep alive Father Swamy’s legacy
08/07/2024
UCA News / by UCA News Reporter
The Jesuit priest became a mot in the eye of the pro-Hindu government for standing with tribal people
People in a southern Indian village have vowed to keep alive the legacy of Jesuit Father Stan Swamy, who they say was forced to die as a prisoner three years ago because of his commitment to the poor.
Young people in Swamy’s native village of Viragalur in Tamil Nadu state have formed an association — Stan Swamy Youth Association — to immortalize the memory of the priest through their work. Read more
Three years after Stan Swamy’s death in custody, activists recall his contributions to Adivasi cause
05/07/2024
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
Activists stressed the need to take the human rights campaigner’s work ahead at an event in Ranchi to mark his third death anniversary.
Three years after human rights activist and Catholic priest Stan Swamy died in police custody in a Mumbai hospital, his name remains to be cleared of the allegations against him in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case.
This is what activist Aloka Kujur reminded her fellow activists and supporters who had gathered at the Bagaicha Social Research Centre in Ranchi on Friday to commemorate Swamy’s third death anniversary. Read more
Celebrating the Spirit of Stan Swamy
05/07/2024
Sabrangindia / by Fr Cedric Prakash SJ
When on 5 July 2021, they killed Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy, they succeeded only in destroying the frail body of an 84-year-old Catholic Priest. Today, three years after that fateful day, the Spirit of Stan Swamy lives on. Millions of people: the Adivasis and the Dalits, the excluded and the exploited, the marginalised and the exploited, the displaced and the denied, the poor and other vulnerable, the academics and the writers, human rights defenders, other civil society and political leaders remember him with fondly. Read more
Father Stan Swamy: “I am not a silent spectator!”
05/07/2024
Christiantoday.co.in / by Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ
Just before his arrest in October 2020, in a video-message that went viral, Fr. Stan Swamy said, “What is happening to me is not something unique happening to me alone. It is a broader process that is taking place all over the country. We are all aware how prominent intellectuals, lawyers’ writers, poets, activists, students, leaders, they are all put into jail because they have expressed their dissent or raised questions about the ruling powers of India. We are part of the process. In a way I am happy to be part of this process. I am not a silent spectator, but part of the game, and ready to pay the price whatever be it.” Read more
Video: Testimony of Stan Swamy, two days before his arrest on 8 October 2020.
Although we received news by late evening on October 8, 2020, of Father Stan Swamy’s arrest, we were quite shocked to see him the next morning in the adjourning barrack conversing with inmates in his impeccable Hindi.
I was at that time lodged in a cell at the prison hospital with my co- accused Varavara Rao (or VV) and Vernon Gonsalves. More
By Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)
Edition: Aug 2021 Publisher: Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi Language: English
Paperback: 45 pages Access a free PDF copy of the book here
Release India’s Political Prisoners / Video: 10 Political prisoners of the Modi era
Since reaching power, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has jailed political critics using bogus terrorism and incitement charges. But an electoral setback for his party offers hope of change in India and a crack in his authoritarian Hindutva order.
… There are those who do make it out of prison. But in one harrowing case, imprisonment under the UAPA became a death sentence. In 2018, violent clashes broke out between Dalits and Hindu militant groups in Bhima Koregaon, a village in Maharashtra state. Instead of arresting any militants, police in the state arrested sixteen eminent activists, academics, and lawyers over the next two years — all of whom were involved in civil rights work supporting marginalized Dalits and tribal Adivasi communities. Read more
Video: Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial
By The Telegraph en | 4:45 | 2024
From Kashmir to Pune, from the barrage of detainees from the CAA-NRC protests to the Delhi riots case accused to the infamous Bhima Koregaon arrests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s time in office has been marked by a number of ‘political prisoners’ who remain indefinitely behind bars, with their trials still pending. Watch video
Jesuit Missions repeats call to clear Indian priest’s name
03/07/2024
Indcatholicnews.com / by ICN
Jesuit Missions has once again written to the Indian High Commission as part of its campaign to clear the name of the late human rights’ advocate and Jesuit priest Fr Stan Swamy.
Br Stephen Power SJ, Chairman of Jesuit Missions’ Management Board, sent a letter to Vikram Doraiswami, High Commissioner of India to the UK, yesterday (July 2) requesting a meeting to discuss the subject of Fr Stan’s imprisonment and death. Read more
The Search for Democracy in India
Mon, 8 Jul 2024 18:45 BST
London Jesuit Centre, Mount Street, London, UK
Join us for a talk by anthropologist and author Professor Alpa Shah, exploring the state of democracy in India. Read more
Let’s start Father Stan Swamy’s beatification process
01/07/2024
UCA News / by John Dayal
The Jesuit martyr who was falsely targeted by Indian probe agencies is already a saint to the tribal people he served
… Modi’s government has also not taken any step to exonerate Jesuit priest and social activist Stanislaus Lourduswamy — Father Stan Swamy for short — who it had arrested on charges of being a part of a conspiracy to assassinate him. Read more
Also read:
▪ How the system broke Stan Swamy: A cell mate recalls the activist’s last days in prison (Scroll.in / Aug 12, 2021 / by Arun Ferreira) Illustration by #bakeryprasad The 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, who had been arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case in October, died on July 5.
Although we received news by late evening on October 8, 2020, of Father Stan Swamy’s arrest, we were quite shocked to see him the next morning in the adjourning barrack conversing with inmates in his impeccable Hindi.
I was at that time lodged in a cell at the prison hospital with my co- accused Varavara Rao (or VV) and Vernon Gonsalves. Read more
India: Authorities must immediately repeal repressive new criminal laws
As three new criminal laws, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhinayam (BSA), come into effect today replacing three British-era laws in India, Aakar Patel, chair of board at Amnesty International India said:
“The provisions of the amendments to and overhaul of the criminal laws in India would have debilitating consequences on the effective realization of the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and fair trial.” Read full statement
by Press Club of India / @PCITweets (June 28):
As part of our #PCIConversation, a discussion on Ajaz Ashraf’s book “Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste” will be discussed
The guests are author himself and Miranda House College’s Jenny Rowena 29 June 2024 (Saturday), 5:30 PM onwards at Conference Hall, Press Club of India
In The Incarcerations, Alpa Shah provides a survey of these men and women that allows us to understand what truly connects them
For many who have followed the news regarding the Bhima Koregaon case, the saga of arrests, press conferences, cyber-forensic reports, bail hearings, statements of condemnation, and protests has gone on long enough and been spread out so thinly that fatigue and forgetfulness are real threats.
Naturally, the opposite has been the case for the 16 individuals arraigned by investigative agencies in the matter. For these persons, the case has illuminated the state of our democracy, the nature of threats against it, and the identity of its most strident defenders. Read more
The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon And The Search For Democracy In India
Author: Alpa Shah
Publishing Date: March 2024
Publisher: Harper Collins Publisher
Pages: 672 Read more / order
Also read:
▪ Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 496 Read more/order
The Polis Project / by Bhavya Dore and Sukhada Tatke
In the summer of May 2022, relegated to his oblong-shaped high-security anda cell, GN Saibaba was frequently thirsty. The Delhi University professor, lodged in Nagpur Central Jail at the time, has post-polio paralysis in both legs. He had also lost the use of his left hand after a nerve injury he said he sustained during his arrest. As temperatures reached 45 degrees outside, Saibaba needed help every time he wanted a drink—his wheelchair did not reach the corner of the cell where the pot of water was kept.
… In September 2022, Anand Teltumbde, a human-rights activist and writer, approached the National Investigation Agency court with a plea for mosquito nets. “Taloja central jail is infested with mosquitoes and the mosquito repellent ointments and incense sticks are hardly of any use,” he wrote in his application Read more
“A powerful account that reminds us that all-powerful States possess the power to silence dissenters, normalise fear in society, and criminalise opinions of free-thinking individuals and dreamers of equality, and rely on institutional memory to settle scores with dissenters at the time of its choosing.“
While reading journalist-author Ajaz Ashraf’s latest book “Bhima Koregaon Challenging Caste”, I was instantaneously reminded of Lavrentiy Beria, the longest-serving secret police chief in Joseph Stalin’s reign of oppression in Russia and Eastern Europe. Read more
Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality
Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 496 Read more/order
▪ The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon And The Search For Democracy In India
Author: Alpa Shah
Publishing Date: March 2024
Publisher: Harper Collins Publisher
Pages: 672 Read more / order
