Stan Swamy had conspired with Maoists to overthrow govt: Court

The special NIA court that refused bail to 83yearold Jesuit priest and activist Stan Swamy in the Elgar ParishadMaoists links case has held that prima facie Swamy had hatched a serious conspiracy with members of a banned Maoist organisation to create unrest in the country and to overthrow governmentSpecial judge DE Kothalikar who rejected Swamys bail plea on Monday said in his order which was made available on Tuesday that based on the material on record it seemed Swamy was a member of banned Maoist organisationThe material that the court referred to included around 140 emails between the applicant Swamy and his coaccused the fact that Swamy and others he communicated with were referred to as comrades and that Swamy had received Rs eight lakh from one comrade Mohan allegedly for the furtherance of Maoist activitiesPrima facie it can be gathered that the applicant alongwith other members of the banned organisation hatched a serious conspiracy to create unrest in the entire country and to overpower the Government politically and by using muscle power Judge Kothalikar said in his orderThe material placed on record thus prima facie denote that the applicant was not only the member of banned organisation CPI Maoist but he was carrying out activities further in the objective of the organisation which is nothing but to overthrow the democracy of the nation the order readSwamy was arrested from Ranchi in October 2020 and has since been lodged at the Taloja Central Jail in Navi MumbaiThe judge also refused to take into the account a published report of alleged tampering with the computer of Swamys coaccused in the case Rona WilsonHe said that raising questions on the authenticity of the evidence in the case would amount to interference with the court proceedingsIt is well known that present proceeding is sub judice Therefore making any comments as to the evidence to be placed before the Court would amount to interference in the administration of justice In fact such act is required to be deprecated the order saidSwamy had applied for bail in November last year both on medical grounds and on meritsHe had said in his plea that he suffered from Parkinsons disease and had lost hearing in both his earsSwamy had also argued that while in the Taloja prison he had to be shifted to the prison hospital owing to his ill healthSwamys lawyer Sharif Shaikh had told the special court that the activist was not a flight risk and will not jump bailSwamy also said in his plea that his name was not even part of the original FIR but was added in the remand application in 2018 by the police as a suspected accusedShaikh argued that the NIA had failed to find anything incriminating against Swamy in the raids conducted at his home in RanchiThe court however held the fact that Swamy had not been named in the initial FIR did nto entitle him to any reliefOn his health condition the judge cited previous Supreme Court judgements to hold that given the seriousness of the allegations made against Swamy the collective interest of the community would outweigh Swamys right to personal libertyAs such the old age and or alleged sickness of the applicant would not go in his favour the judge saidSpecial Public Prosecutor Prakash Shetty who appeared for the National Investigation Agency NIA had opposed Swamys bail application saying he was involved with the banned Communist Party of India MaoistShetty had told the court that Swamy was a staunch supporter of organisations such as Vistapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan and Peoples Union for Civil Liberties which were involved in activities for the CPI MaoistsJudge Kothalikar accepted the prosecutions submissions saying they had substanceUpon cumulative consideration of all the aforesaid circumstances as well as law on the subject I conclude that the applicant has failed to make out a case for grant of bail the judge saidThe case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31 2017 which police suspect triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the cityVaravara RaoWilson and some other activists are being tried at a special court here after the NIA took over probeThis 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