The family and friends of 16 activists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case have called tribal rights activist Stan Swamy’s death an “instit...
The family and friends of 16 activists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case have called tribal rights activist Stan Swamy’s death an “institutional murder”. In a joint statement, the signatories said it was unconscionable that someone of his age and with his health condition “was put in the prison in the first place”.
The 84-year-old activist died at a hospital in Mumbai on Monday afternoon. Swamy was an accused in the case related to the caste violence in the Bhima Koregaon village near Pune in 2017, and was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in October 2020. He was charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Apart from other ailments, he suffered from Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological condition.
Swamy was the oldest and the last person to be arrested in the case.
“We, the friends and family members of those accused in the Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy case, are deeply pained and shaken to the core by the loss of Father Stan Swamy,” the statement from families and friends of those accused in the Bhima Koregaon case said. “This is not a natural death, but the institutional murder of a gentle soul, committed by an inhuman state.”
The signatories included friends and family of arrested...
