Stan Swamy – Page 12 – free them all

‘This fight is not just about Father Stan Swamy’: Father Mascarenhas

27/11/2021 Asha

Rediff.com / by Jyoti Punwani

‘Father Stan was concerned about other innocents who may be implicated and put inside without the slightest proof, the way he was.’
Father Mascarenhas, the former principal of St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, tells Jyoti Punwani why even though Father Swamy is no more, the legal fight to prove that the 84-year-old priest from Jharkhand was not what the State portrayed him to be, is important.
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Bombay HC Asks Jesuit Group to File New Plea if They Want Stan Swamy’s Name Cleared

26/11/2021 Asha

Pic: Mumbai, Sep 2021

Indian Jesuits want Father Stan’s reputation restored

26/11/2021

UCA News / by UCA News reporter

They believe the late activist priest was implicated in mob violence for standing up for the rights of indigenous people.
Indian Jesuits plan to appeal to a court to clear the stigma attached to their activist colleague Father Stan Swamy, who died under detention after being arrested under a draconian anti-terror law.
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Bombay HC Asks Jesuit Group to File New Plea if They Want Stan Swamy’s Name Cleared

25/11/2021

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

Swamy died while his appeal in the high court against the NIA special court’s order denying him bail was pending.
The Bombay high court on Wednesday asked the lawyers of late Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Stan Swamy to file a fresh petition against observations made by a special National Investigation Agency court against him in the Elgar Parishad case.
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HC asks lawyers to file fresh plea against special NIA court’s observations against Stan Swamy

24/11/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

After his death on July 5, Swamy’s lawyers had requested the court to keep pending his appeals against special court orders rejecting his bail pleas on medical grounds and merits.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday asked late Father Stan Swamy’s lawyers to file fresh independent plea raising grievances pertaining to the observations made against the Jesuit priest by the Special NIA Court while rejecting his bail pleas.
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Bombay High Court Disposes Father Stan Swamy’s Petitions ; Allows Jesuits To Initiate Separate Proceedings

24/11/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

Four and a half months after Father Stan Swamy’s demise, the Bombay High Court has allowed the Jesuits to initiate separateproceedings to clear the odium attached to his name and reputation because of the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad case.
A division bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and Sarang Kotwal disposed of as withdrawn Swamy’s bail appeal and anotherpetition challenging his prosecution under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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Fr Swamy silenced over India’s coal and Adivasi

15/11/2021 Asha

AsiaNews / by Giorgio Bernardelli

The Jesuit clergyman, who died in Mumbai after nine months in detention, wrote a scathing article against the Indian government’s policy of auctioning off 41 coal mines to private interests. India’s coal is front-page news in the wake of COP26 in Glasgow.
Fr Stan Swamy was a prophetic voice when he spoke about coal mines in India, an issue that is front-page news around the world.
That voice was first silenced with prison, then extinguished at the age of 83 when he died last July from the consequences of his detention.
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Father Stan’s fight goes beyond his death, says his lawyer

13/11/2021 Asha

Bangalore, July 2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Father Stan Swamy’s fight goes on, even beyond his death, said lawyer Mihir Desai, who represented the Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist in the Elgaar Parishad case.
The 84-year-old Swamy died undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Mumbai in July while he was under judicial custody. He was booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Elgaar Parishad case.
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Was Stan Swamy a Maoist or a martyr? A new book considers the question

07/11/2021 Asha

Scroll.in / by Gladson Dungdung

Since the death of the 84-year-old renowned human rights activist Fr. Stan Swamy (trained as a Jesuit priest), in judicial custody on July 5th, 2021, which was actually an institutional murder orchestrated by the Indian state, a billion-dollar question has arisen in the minds of millions in India and abroad. Was Fr. Stan Swamy a martyr or a traitor?
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Also read:
● How the system broke Stan Swamy: A cell mate recalls the activist’s last days in prison (Scroll.in / Aug 2021)
● Framed to Die – The Case of Stan Swamy (45 pages, PUDR / Aug 2021)

In Jharkhand, Scheduled Tribes Still Battle Flimsy Criminal Cases Filed With Little Evidence

27/10/2021 Asha

Indiaspend / by Riddhi Dastidar

Among undertrials charged with being Maoists under stringent, non-bailable offences in Jharkhand, high numbers are Adivasis, Scheduled Castes and OBCs, a study led by late Fr. Stan Swamy had found in 2015. An alleged encounter during an Adivasi festival six years later shows not much has changed.
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Silence from Maharashtra authorities on letter on Father Stan Swamy’s jail torment

12/10/2021 Asha

Silence on letter on Father Stan Swamy’s jail torment

12/10/2021

The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent

A three-month-old letter by three Elgaar Parishad co-accused alleging “institutional murder” of Father Stan Swamy and accusing then Taloja prison superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar of mistreating him has yet to evoke any response from the Maharashtra authorities it was sent to.
The letter alleged the 84-year-old Jesuit and tribal rights defender from Jharkhand was strip-searched “in front of the entire staff” when he was brought to the jail, and was kept in isolation so the Parkinson’s patient could not receive any help from fellow prisoners.
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Stan Swamy’s Death was an Institutional Murder: Co-inmates write to Uddhav Thackeray

06/10/2021

NewsClick / by Parth M.N.

The letter holds the superintendent of Taloja Prison, Kaustubh Kurlekar, responsible for Swamy’s death, and accuses him of purposely emasculating Swamy’s physical health and mental resolve.
Three political prisoners arrested in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case have written a letter to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray. The letter claims that father Stan Swamy, a tribal rights activist based in Jharkhand, did not die a natural death. “It was an institutional murder,” says the letter, signed by human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling, and cultural activists Ramesh Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhe, who were eyewitnesses to the treatment meted out to Swamy in prison.
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Mangaluru college to name park after Stan Swamy despite being threatened by Hindutva groups

09/10/2021 Rani

Action sought against Hindutva groups for threatening Mangaluru college

09/10/2021

New Indian Express / by Express News Service

This blatantly illegal behaviour is a consequence of the free run that is being given to these fascist organisations in coastal Karnataka.
An open letter, endorsed by several organisations like the Campaign to Defend Democracy, All India People’s Forum (AIPF) and activists like P Sainath, Harsh Mander and others, has called upon the Dakshina Kannada district administration and the police to take immediate action against VHP, Bajrang Dal and other right-wing outfits for engaging in criminal intimidation and issuing threats to St Aloysius College, Mangaluru, following its decision to name one of its parks after tribal activist late Fr Stan Swamy.
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Mangaluru college to name park after Stan Swamy despite being threatened by Hindutva groups

09/10/2021

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

A VHP leader had said its members and those belonging to the ABVP and Bajrang Dal would not let St Aloysius College hold the naming ceremony.
A college in Mangaluru has said that it will go ahead and name a park after tribal rights activist Stan Swamy though Hindutva organisations have threatened to not allow it, reported The New Indian Express on Thursday…
Meanwhile, several organisations and activists have written to the Dakshina Kannada district administration to take action against the Hindutva leaders for threatening the college administration, reported The Hindu.
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Who are these Saffronists to tell Not to Name a Park after Fr Stan Swamy in a Jesuit Property?

07/10/2021

Mangaorean.com / by Alfie Dsouza, Team Mangalorean

Mangaluru: With all the present Tension, Communal Riots, Moral Policing, Hate, etc going on in our Country in its 75th year of Independence from the Britishers, it looks like India is no longer an ‘electoral democracy, but an ‘electoral autocracy’ instead, with much of the decline in democratic freedoms occurred after the present government came to power in 2014…
And here is one instance that arose when a press meet was arranged in the City by a few Right-wing groups opposing St Aloysius Institutions, Mangaluru decision to name a park after Fr Stan Swamy, in one of their institution premises in Beeri, in the outskirts of Mangaluru.
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Judicial probe plea on Stan Swamy arrest anniversary / Stan Swamy a Symbol for Justice & Hope

09/10/2021 Asha

Judicial probe plea on Stan Swamy arrest anniversary

09/10/2021

The Telegraph / by Animesh Bisoee

Over 150 rights activists staged a dharna for over two hours at the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi.
Protests and programmes were organised in Jharkhand, Kerala and Karnataka on Friday to mark the first anniversary of the arrest of octogenarian Jesuit priest and rights defender Father Stan Swamy who passed away in July this year in judicial custody.
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Dharna demands punishment of the perpetrators of Stan Swamy’s murder

By Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (Oct 8)

Oct 8, 2021. Dharna in front of Raj Bhavan in Ranchi

Various mass organizations and left parties demanding:
Punishment of the perpetrators of Stan’s murder!
Release all political prisoners!
Repeal UAPA!

Stan Swamy a Symbol for Justice & Hope

08/10/2021

By Jamsehdpur Jesuits

en | 3:15min | 2021
Fr. Jerry Cutinha, S.J, the Provincial of Jamshedpur Jesuits comes forward in recalling the footsteps of Stan Swamy as a symbol for Justice & Hope.
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by Teesta Setalvad (Oct 8):
LEST WE FORGET: A Day of Crime a Precious Life Lost! this day last yr, the Modi govt arrested Fr #StanSwamy via #UAPA. Never questioned in custody. Died in July, denied bail.

Testimony of Stan Swamy two days before his arrest

Oct 2020

Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha / by Stan Swamy

en | 7:48min | 2020
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Also read:
Why An Aged Defender Of The Deprived Faces Terror Charges (article 14, Nov 2020)

Jail Authorities Are Blocking Letters From Elgar Parishad Arrested to Their Loved Ones

06/10/2021 Asha

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

After Father Stan Swamy’s death in July, Sudhir Dhawale penned an emotional letter. But Taloja jail authorities decided nobody should read it.
When 84-year-old Jharkhand-based tribal rights activist and Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy passed away on July 5, one of his co-accused in the Elgar Parishad case, Sudhir Dhawale, penned an emotional poem. Dhawale, a writer and anti-caste activist from Mumbai who is currently jailed at the Taloja central prison, wrote an eight-page poem describing his first meeting with Swamy, their interactions in jail and Swamy’s contribution to the tribal rights movement in Jharkhand. He titled the poem Pathalgadicha Father or the ‘Father of Pathalgadi’.
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