Elgar case accused go on hunger strike in jail against 'murder' of Stan Swamy

Ten accused in the Elgar ParishadMaoist links case went on a oneday hunger strike in the Taloja jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai on Wednesday to protest against what they termed as an institutional murder of coaccused Jesuit priest Stan SwamyThey also demanded action against officials of the National Investigation Agency NIA which is conducting a probe into the Elgar Parishad case and former superintendent of the Taloja jailSwamy 84 was arrested by the NIA from Ranchi in October 2020 under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA and lodged at the Taloja Central Jail in Navi MumbaiAlso Read lsquoFr Stan may be gone but fight will go onrsquoHe suffered a cardiac arrest and died at a Mumbai hospital on Monday in the middle of his fight for bail on health groundsThe Elgar Parishad case is related to inflammatory speeches made at a conclave held in Pune on December 31 2017 which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the KoregaonBhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra cityThe police had claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist linksThe other accused in the case termed Swamys death an institutional murder and held the negligent jails indifferent courts and malicious investigating agencies responsible for itAs a mark of protest 10 of the coaccused in the case Rona Wilson Surendra Gadling Sudhir Dhawale Mahesh Raut Arun Ferreira Vernon Gonsalves Gautam Navlakha Anand Teltumbde Ramesh Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhe went on a oneday fast in the Taloja jail on WednesdayThey informed about the protest to their family members who released a statement saying all Elgar case prisoners have blamed the NIA and the Taloja jails former superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar for the death of Father Stan SwamyThey believe that the separation of Stan Swamy from them is a deliberate institutional murder the release saidThe statement alleged that the NIA and Kurlekar never missed a single opportunity to harass Stan Swamy whether it was the ghastly treatment inside the jail the haste to transfer him back from hospital to jail or even protesting against trivial things like a sipper which Swamy required due to his medical conditionsIt is these that have caused the death of Stan Swamy and therefore for this institutional murder NIA officials and Kurlekar should be tried under Section 302 murder of the Indian Penal Code the statement said while demanding a judicial inquiry into his deathThe statement said the family members of the accused will submit these demands to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray through the Taloja jail administrationIt also said that though these accused were lodged in different barracks they met on Tuesday and shared their memories of Father Stan Swamy and also observed a twominute silence as a mark of tribute to himThree women accused in the case Sudha Bharadwaj Shoma Sen and Jyoti Jagtap are currently lodged at the Byculla prison in MumbaiThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever