Activist Stan Swamy, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, died on Monday, his counsel informed the Bombay High Court.
The 84-year-old Jesuit priest was admitted to Holy Family hospital where he was on ventilator support since Sunday.
Stan Swamy was undergoing treatment at the hospital following a court order on May 28. On Saturday, his advocate Mihir Desai told a bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar that Stan Swamy’s health was critical and that he was in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
Swamy’s lawyers on Monday morning moved the Bombay HC, seeking an urgent hearing on the medical bail plea of Stan Swamy after his health deteriorated.
Who was Stan Swamy?
The Elgar Parishad case is related to inflammatory speeches made at a conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which, the police claimed, triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.
The police had claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.
In the Elgar-Parishad case, Stan Swamy and his co-accused have been charged by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as being members of frontal organisations working on behalf of the banned CPI (Maoists).
Stan Swamy and his co-accused repeatedly complained of inadequate health facilities at the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, where they were lodged.
Through their pleas filed in the HC as well as oral and written statements made in the HC, they have complained several times of neglect on part of the Taloja prison authorities in ensuring medical aid, timely tests and maintaining hygiene and social distancing.
In May this year, Stan Swamy told a vacation bench of the high court via video-conferencing that his health had consistently declined at the Taloja prison.
Stan Swamy, who claimed to be suffering from several ailments, including the Parkinson’s disease, had moved the high court earlier this year through advocate Desai, seeking medical treatment and interim bail on health grounds.
He urged the HC to release him on interim bail at that time and said if things continued the way they were, he “would die soon”.
Last month, the NIA had filed an affidavit before the HC opposing Swamy’s bail plea. It had said there did not exist a “conclusive proof” of his medical ailments. It alleged that Swamy was a Maoist, who had hatched a conspiracy to create unrest in the country
He had tested positive for coronavirus at a private hospital last month and was subsequently shifted to the ICU.
