A small funeral with 20 attendees, most of them Jesuit priests, was held at Bandra’s St Peter’s Church on Tuesday at 4 pm in remembrance of Fr Stan Swamy, 84, one of the incarcerated Bhima Koregaon-16 (BK-16) who breathed his last at Holy Family Hospital on Monday while in custody of the court. The Holy Eucharist, organised by Fr Stan’s close friend and confidante Fr Frazer Mascarenhas, was broadcast live over YouTube.

Although the number of attendees inside the church was limited to 20 amid Covid restrictions, a group of people, most of them members of the Bombay Catholic Sabha (BCS), sporting banners and placards paying homage to Swamy, had gathered outside the church. “We condemn this institutional murder,” said Dolfi Dsouza, spokesperson for the BCS. “Fr Stan who was falsely implicated was the voice of the voiceless Adivasis whose cause for their rights he espoused. The Bombay Catholic Sabha has resolved to carry on his legacy of fighting for social justice and human rights for the Adivasis, Dalits, minorities, and other vulnerable communities. We demand that all the social activists and intellectuals jailed in the Bhima Koregaon case be released. We also demand the repeal of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).”