5 Years Since Stan Swamy's Custodial Death : No Lessons Learnt, Concerns Over UAPA Abuse Persist

It has been five years since the death of Father Stan Swamy, while he was under custody in the Bhima Koregaon case. We still don't know what was the crime committed by the man, except for the hyperbolic allegations of the National Investigation Agency, over which the Courts themselves have later raised many doubts and questions while granting bail to several co-accused in the case.

If the alleged crime was so grave as to threaten national security, one would have expected an expeditious trial. However, there seems to be no urgency in the trial, which is progressing at a snail's pace, and not much progress has happened even five years after Father Stan's death.

Father Stan Swamy spent over 270 days in prison facing allegations under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The bail applications of the octogenarian priest, who had spent years raising issues on tribal rights - which were sought to be portrayed as an anti-national activity- were repeatedly rejected by the Courts, despite the fact that he was seriously afflicted by Parkinsons' disease and other geriatric ailments.  The refusal to promptly provide him a straw and a sipper, which he needed simply to drink water as he could not hold a glass due to Parkinson's, remains one of the starkest instances of prison apathy and cruelty.  

Even during the height of the Covid pandemic in 2021, the NIA opposed the 84-year-old's plea for bail on medical grounds, claiming that he was trying to take "undue advantage" of the situation.

In May 2021, he had a virtual interaction with the judges of the Bombay High Court, where he pleaded for interim bail. He told the Court that his health deteriorated after 8 months in the Taloja prison. Suffering from hearing impairment, he could understand the judges only with the assistance of a fellow prisoner.

"When I came to Taloja, whole systems of my body were very functional, but during these eight months there has been a steady and slow regression of whatever my body functions were.

Eight months ago, I would eat by myself, do some writing, walk, I could take bath by myself, but all these are disappearing one after another. So Taloja Jail has brought me to a situation where I can neither write nor go for a walk by myself. Someone has to feed me. In other words, I am requesting you to consider why and how this deterioration of myself happened," he told the Court.

He refused the bench's proposal to shift him to a government hospital, and prayed for interim release. He might have had a premonition about his life's end, and probably wanted to spend his last days at his hometown with his peers. "Whatever happens to me, I would like to be with my own," he pleaded.

Ultimately, his request was rejected, and he was shifted to a hospital. On July 5, his lawyer informed the Court that Father Stan Swamy passed away that morning in the hospital. The Court was left shocked.

Justice SS Shinde, the presiding judge of the bench hearing the matter, later expressed in open Court that he had great respect for the priest's work.  "Such a wonderful person. The kind of services he has rendered to the society. We have respect for his work. Legally, whatever is there against him is a different matter," Justice Shinde said two weeks later, after seeing the visuals of the funeral service. However, after the NIA objected to the judge's comments, Justice Shinde said that he was taking them back, but after saying, "We are also human beings."

The United Nations mourned Father Stan's death, remembering him as a "long-standing activist", and appealed to India to release all political prisoners.

Over the years, all the remaining accused in the case got bail/interim bail at various stages. The Courts have made strong prima facie observations underscoring the lack of evidence against some of the accused, making one wonder whether the charges will pass muster in a full-fledged trial. We also have the example of the GN Saibaba case,  where all the UAPA accused were ultimately acquitted, but only after long years of incarceration. The ten years in prison wrecked the health of Professor GN Saibaba, who was wheelchair-bound, and he died within six months of his release.

In parallel to the Bhima Koregaon case, another travesty is unfolding in the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case, where several activists, who were at the forefront of the anti-CAA protests, have been jailed under UAPA charges. In the Umar Khalid matter, the Courts are now debating how long a person should suffer as undertrial before he becomes entitled to bail on the ground of delay in trial. As per the Courts, six years is too little a time.

The stringent provisions of the UAPA allow the State to inverse the 'bail is the rule' and 'innocent until proven guilty' principles, enabling the trapping of activists and dissidents, who raise uncomfortable questions at the establishment. The conviction rates under UAPA are shameful, barely crossing 5%, which a conscientious judge of the Supreme Court recently flagged. The process becomes the punishment.

A system committed to human rights and due process would have taken lessons from the Stan Swamy episode. However, the converse seems to be happening, as more brazenness is visible. The Courts, unfortunately, look away from the abject weaponisation of the law, and the evocations of personal liberty remain largely confined to judicial seminars. 

The image of the frail old priest begging for a few days of freedom on his last days will remain as an indelible blot on the Indian judicial system, which can be erased only if the Courts affirmatively state, through word and action: 'never again'