Mumbai: Father Stan Swamy, a tribal rights activist arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case last year, breathed his last at a private hospital here on Monday. He was 84.
Swam was on ventilator after his health deteriorated further early Sunday.
Swamy, a Jesuit priest, has been charged by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) as being members of frontal organisations working on behalf of the banned CPI (Maoists) and was named in the 2017 Elgar-Parishad case.
Swamy was arrested on October 8 last year from Ranchi, where he was based, and brought to Mumbai by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) the next day. The NIA did not seek his custody, but filed a chargesheet against him and seven others on the same day.
Swamy had sought interim bail on grounds of the pandemic citing his various health issues, including Parkinson’s disease. He also filed for bail on merits before the special court stating that he was arrested for challenging the indiscriminate arrests of thousands of young Adivasis labelled as “Naxals” and claimed there was no proof of his involvement with the CPI (Maoists), a banned organisation, as alleged by the central agency. The special court had disallowed the pleas.