Jailed Congress leader Navjot Sidhu gets a special diet, but departed Father Stan had to plead for slippers and straw, got it all too late.
Navjot Singh Sidhu in the Patiala Jail has a fabulous health diet due to his health problems such as rosemary or chamomile tea, a glass of coconut water early in the morning, a cup of lactose-free milk, fruits, and grains all with an exotic mix and he will get to do ‘munshi’, clerical work at Patiala central jail. However, late 84-year-old Stan Swamy, an Indian Roman Catholic priest suffered and struggled to just get slippers and straw, which he desperately needed as he had Parkinson’s.
Sources say Father Stan Swamy was imprisoned on false charges of terrorism
When Father Stan Swamy passed away on 5 July 202, different sources expressed he was imprisoned on “false charges of terrorism”, as a top official of the United Nations also said.
“The news from India today is devastating. Human Rights Defender and Jesuit priest Fr. Stan Swamy has done in custody, nine months after his arrest on false charges of terrorism. Jailing Human Rights Defenders is inexcusable,” said Ms. Lawlor. The U.N. official had on Sunday expressed concern about the deteriorating health condition of Fr. Stan Swamy. She had described the charges against the Jesuit priest as “unfounded”.
Stanislaus Lourduswamy was born on 26 April 1937, popularly known as Stan Swamy was an Indian Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit order and a tribal rights activist for several decades. Swamy was the oldest person to be accused of terrorism in India.
On 8 October 2020, Swamy was arrested and charged by the National Investigation Agency under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, for his alleged role in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence and links to the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Swamy had pleaded innocent. He was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and had requested bail on medical grounds, which was rejected multiple times. While incarcerated, his health deteriorated, and contracted COVID while in a hospital, had to be put on a ventilator in the end, and died on July 5, 2021.
While incarcerated in Taloja Central Jail, in a letter to his Jesuit colleague, Swamy highlighted the plight of the prisoners stating, “Many of such poor undertrials don’t know what changes have been put on them, have not seen their charge sheet and just remain in prison for years without any legal or other assistance.” He ended the letter by saying, “But we will still sing in chorus. A caged bird can still sing.”
Jamshedpur Jesuit Province petitioned the Bombay High Court, as his next-of-kin, to clear Swamy’s name from the case
In November 2021, Jamshedpur Jesuit Province (JJP), has petitioned the Bombay High Court, as his next-of-kin, to clear Swamy’s name from the case. Emphasizing that Stan Swamy died without a trial, the petition sought “necessary directions asserting that the deceased Stan Swamy, in the eyes of law, is entitled to be seen as innocent and not guilty of the offenses alleged against him irrespective of the (prima facie) findings of the special court”.
Swamy had always maintained he was innocent. He was a great humanitarian, a seeker of peace, and a fighter for justice. In fact, the Opposition called the death of F. Stan Swamy a state-sponsored political murder!
Unfortunately, providing him with slippers and straw was too much trouble for the court and it had become a battle that the 84-year-old political prisoner had to fight for, who was already suffering from Parkinson’s. Being one of the oldest civilizations in the world, it is shocking when no civility or humanity was shown to Stan Swamy and the law leaves citizens to question, “Are we a country of inequality where the law is concerned?”