EXPLAINED | Who Is Stan Swamy? The 83-Yr-Old Activist To Be Arrested In Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon Case

Swamy, who said he has never been to Bhima Koregaon, was arrested from his home in Ranchi and brought to Mumbai where he was produced before a court on Friday and remanded to judicial custody till October 23.

A file photo of human rights activist Stan Swamy. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: The National Investigative Agency (NIA) made its seventh arrest in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case on Thursday, with taking into custody an 83-year-old Father Stan Swamy from Ranchi. As per reports, the investigative agency on Friday filed a charge-sheet against eight people including  Swamy, for their alleged involvement in inciting a mob to violence in Bhima Koregaon near Pune on January 1, 2018. Who Is Stan Swamy & why is he talk of the town? 1. Father Stan Swamy is a Jesuit priest and a tribal rights activist based from Jharkhand. He is possibly the oldest person to be charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The cleric is the sixteenth person to be arrested in the case, in which people have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the anti-terror law UAPA. 2. Swamy, who said he has never been to Bhima Koregaon, was arrested from his home in Ranchi on Thursday evening and brought to Mumbai where he was produced before a court on Friday and remanded to judicial custody till October 23. 3. Swamy's lawyer Sharif Shaikh said his client was produced physically before the court. "The NIA did not seek his custody. He is aged. We will peruse the papers and file for a bail," he said. 4. The agency alleged that Swamy had also received funds through an associate for furthering the agenda. Besides, he is convenor of the Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee (PPSC), a frontal organisation of the CPI(Maoist). NIA stated that literature, propaganda material of the CPI(Maoist) and documents related to communications for furthering the group's programmes were seized from his possession. 5. Ahead of his arrest in the evening, Swamy posted a video on Thursday morning saying the NIA had been interrogating him and had questioned him for 15 hours during a span of five days. Records state that Swamy has worked in Jharkhand for over three decades on various issues of the tribal communities on land, forest and labour rights. The Bhima Koregaon case was taken over by the NIA on January 24 this year. Pune Police has alleged that the violence was caused following speeches given by members of the group Elgar Parishad on December 31, 2017. Violence broke out the next day. During investigation, it was revealed that senior leaders of CPI (Maoist), an organisation banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, were in contact with the organisers of Elgar Parishad as well as the accused arrested in the case to spread the ideology of Maoism and encourage unlawful activities.