A special NIA court denying bail to 83-year-old activist Stan Swamy in the Elgar Council-Maoist Link case has admitted that Stan Swamy had “serious conspiracy” with members of the banned Maoist organization, to create unrest in the country and overthrow the government.
Swamy was arrested on October 8 last year for allegedly being part of a conspiracy in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon case. He allegedly delivered inflammatory speeches at the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, that triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the city.
He had moved a bail plea in November claiming he had been falsely implicated due to the nature of his writings about the caste and land struggles of the people in India and research on undertrial Adivasis.
While rejecting his bail, the court relied upon letters allegedly written by co-accused Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson. Adding to it, special judge DE Kothalikar, also mentioned that as per the available material on record, it seemed Swamy was a member of the banned Maoist organization.
“The material placed on record thus prima facie denotes that the applicant was not only a member of banned organization Communist Party of India (Maoist) but he was carrying out activities further in the objective of the organization which is nothing but to overthrow the democracy of the nation. Therefore, I do not find merit in the submissions made by the learned advocate for the applicant that only because of membership of a banned organization the applicant cannot be detained in jail, is not acceptable.” said the judge.
Special Public Prosecutor Prakash Shetty, who appeared for the National Investigation Agency (NIA), while objecting to the bail, cited around 140 emails and letters exchanged between Swamy and other accused persons such as Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha. The NIA also claimed that Swamy was a “staunch supporter of the activities of the organization, which is a frontal organization of CPI (Maoist).”
Judge Kothalikar accepted the prosecution’s submissions saying they had “substance”.
Stan Swamy, who had applied for bail in November last year both on medical grounds and on merits, denied his role in the conspiracy.
He also argued that while in the Taloja prison, he had to be shifted to the prison hospital owing to his ill health.
To which, the judge cited previous Supreme Court judgments to hold that given the seriousness of the allegations made against Swamy, the “collective interest of the community would outweigh Swamy’s right to personal liberty”.
