Fake: The old man in this image with his feet chained is not Stan Swamy

New Delhi, July 06: 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 S S Shinde and N J 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-19 and Parkinson's disease.

Amidst this an image of a old man on oxygen and his feet chained to the footboard of a hospital bed has gone viral with the claim that the man seen in the picture is Stan Swamy.

This is however a false claim and the man in the image is Baburam Balwan Singh, a murder convict who was lodged in the district jail of Etah in Uttar Pradesh. Doing a reverse image search, OneIndia found a report by Press Trust of India with the headline, Elderly Inmate Chained Up During Treatment In UP, Jail Warden Suspended. Baburam Balwan Singh (92), a convicted murderer, was lodged at district jail of Etah, Jailor Kuldeep Singh Bhadauria said, adding he was taken to a hospital on Sunday due to breathing problems and was referred to Aligarh, the report said.

On Monday, D'Souza told the court that Swamy suffered a cardiac arrest early Sunday morning following which he was put on ventilator support. He (Swamy) did not recover and passed away this afternoon, the official told the court.

The cause of the death is pulmonary infection, Parkinson's disease and post COVID-19 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 (NIA) in October 2020 and had been in jail since then.