[BREAKING] Mumbai Special Court rejects bail plea of Elgar Parishad case accused Father Stan Swamy

.A Special Court dealing with cases investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday refused to grant bail to Father Stan Swamy in relation the Bhima Koregaon violence that broke out in 2018.

. Additional Sessions Judge DE Kothalikar refused bail concluding that Swamy failed to make out a case for grant of bail.

He observed in the order,

. If seriousness of the allegations made against the applicant are considered in proper perspective, in that case there will be no hesitation to conclude that the collective interest of the community would outweigh the right of personal liberty of the applicant as such the old age or alleged sickness, of the applicant would not go in his favour, so that the discretion to release the applicant can be exercised in his favour. . Swamy was arrested from his house in Ranchi on October 8 for his alleged role in inciting riots at Bhima Koregaon in 2018. He was later remanded to judicial custody and lodged in Taloja jail.

. Swamy had sought bail primarily on medical grounds along with merits of the case.

His lawyer Sharif Shaikh submitted that the octogenarian suffers from Parkinson's disease, and highlighted how he had to be shifted to the prison hospital due to health reasons.

. Swamy also contended that he is not a flight risk and will not jump bail.

. He also pointed out that his name was allegedly not even part of the original FIR but was added in the remand application in 2018 by the police as a suspected accused.

. Swamy's lawyer claimed that the evidence allegedly relied upon by the NIA was correspondence with various people to seek legal aid for Swamy's organisation, Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee (PPSC), which works for undertrial Adivasis and Dalits falsely accused as Maoists.

. Nothing was found after two raids were subsequently conducted at Swamy's residence. In fact, the Pune Police had also stated on record in a plea filed by Swamy in Bombay High Court that the " they had no intention of arresting him, as he was not an accused. "

. Special Public Prosecutor Prakash Shetty appearing for NIA opposed the bail application, vehemently arguing that Swamy was involved in the activities being carried out by the Communist Party of India (CPI) (Maoist).

. Purportedly, Swamy was a staunch supporter of organisations like Vistapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan and People's Union for Civil Liberties involved in activities for CPI (Maoists), it was submitted.

. He submitted that during the several investigations carried out, incriminating evidence was found against him on his laptop.

. Shetty claimed that Swamy even tried to destroy evidence from his electronic devices, which showed his involvement in the CPI (Maoist) activities.

. It was claimed that NIA has sufficient evidence to prima facie prove that the accused was involved in the deep-rooted conspiracy and was directly involved in the Naxalite movement.

. The matter was reserved for orders and the verdict was to be pronounced on March 2, 2021. However, NIA sought to bring fresh documents on record and filed an application to that effect.

. Shetty argued that they deemed it necessary and important to bring those documents on record for the Court to consider before giving its verdict in the bail application. The document they sought to bring on record was the case diary of the investigating agency.

. Sharif opposed such application, stating that the prosecution was trying to bring on record new documents through Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

. He submitted that such documents could only be brought for filing of a supplementary chargesheet, and NIA had not made any submission about filing of the same.

. He further opposed the consideration of a case diary at the stage when a primary chargesheet had already been filed. He argued that once the chargesheet is filed, the case diary could not be considered by the Court.

. The Court had finally reserved the matter for orders on March 16, 2021.

. Swamy filed the fresh application after his bail plea citing medical emergency arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic was rejected by the Special Court in October 2020.

.[Bhima Koregaon] Not likely to jump bail, arrest malafide: Father Stan Swamy moves Special NIA Court for bail. [Read order here]

[BREAKING] Mumbai Special Court rejects bail plea of Elgar Parishad case accused Father Stan Swamy

Neha Joshi

Related Stories