Bhima Koregaon case: NIA court refuses bail to Stan Swamy

Mumbai, Mar 22: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai on Monday rejected the bail plea filed by tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

Additional sessions court judge Judge DE Kothalikar rejected bail pleas of 83-year-old Stan Swamy on merits as well as on medical grounds.

Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest, and activist was arrested from Ranchi in October 2020 and has since been lodged at the Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai.

As per his lawyers, Stan Swamy is suffering from Parkinson's disease and he has lost the ability to hear from both his ears. He also suffers from several other ailments.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had opposed Stan Swamy's bail plea saying the probe had revealed that Stan Swamy was a staunch supporter of organisations such as ''Vistapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan'' and ''People's Union for Civil Liberties'', which were working as "fronts of the CPI (Maoist)".

Stan Swamy's lawyer Sharif Shaikh had argued that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had failed to establish Stan Swamy's connection to the Elgar Parishad-Maoists links case.