In a recent development in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists case, the special NIA court has refused to grant bail to the 83-year-old activist Stan Swamy. He was arrested with the evidence linking him to a banned Maoist organisation to overthrow the Indian government.
Accused Members Communicated Via Email Says Judge
Special Judge DE Kothalikar rejected Stan Swamy’s plea to grant bail on Monday. He said that material based against Swamy shows that he was the member of the banned Maoist group. They all schemed a “serious conspiracy” to disrupt the country and overthrow the government by using “muscle power”.
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The court referred to the approximately 140 emails shared between Swamy and the other accused members of the same organization. Kothalikar said that they both referred to each as “comrades” and Swamy received an amount of Rs 8 lakhs from another comrade named Mohan.
Judge also said that the material placed on record denotes that the accused was a member of the CPI (Maoist) and was carrying activities with the objective to “overthrow the democracy of the nation”.
Stan Swamy Has Reportedly Lost Hearing In Both Ears
Stan Swamy was arrested in October last year from Ranchi and was admitted to the Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai. He had filed a bail plea on medical grounds and merits in November. He reported that he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and had lost hearing in both ears. Swamy was also shifted to the prison hospital due to his ill health.
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Furthermore, the judge said that the allegation on which Swamy was arrested is of grave concern and outweigh the collective interests of the society.
During the hearing, the judge refused to take into account the report that alleged that the evidence was tampered with. The judge said that it would question the authenticity of the report and would disrupt the court proceedings.
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Stan Swamy informed the court that his name was not written in the original FIR and was added after a remand application filed in 2018 as a suspect. Swamy’s lawyer Sharif Shaikh said that the NIA had failed to find any strong evidence against Stan Swamy in the raids that were conducted at his home.
