Activist Stan Swamy dead, hospital tells Bombay High Court

Tribune News Service
New Delhi/Mumbai, July 5

Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, has died, an official of a hospital where he was being treated informed the Bombay High Court on Monday.

Swamy, 84, died at 1.30 pm on Monday, Dr Ian D'Souza, director of the Holy Family Hospital in suburban Bandra, told the HC's division bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar.

The tribal rights activist was admitted to the private hospital on May 29 from the Taloja prison following the HC's order on a petition filed by him, seeking medical attention as he was then suffering from Covid and Parkinson's disease.

D'Souza told the court that Swamy suffered a cardiac arrest on Sunday morning following which he was put on ventilator support.

“He (Swamy) did not recover and passed away on Monday afternoon,” the official told the court.

The cause of the death is pulmonary infection, Parkinson’s disease and post-Covid complications, he said.

Swamy's counsel Mihir Desai said there was negligence on part of the Taloja prison authorities, who failed to provide immediate medical attention to the Jesuit priest.

Swamy was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in October 2020 and had been in jail since then.

Stan Swamy’s death ‘devastating’: UN Special Rapporteur

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor described the news about Jesuit priest Fr. Stan Swamy’s death in custody as “devastating”.

Noting that he died nine months after his arrest, Lawlor said jailing human rights defenders is “inexcusable”. With PTI

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