New Delhi:
A day after activist Stan Swamy’s death in custody, senior opposition politicians, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, have written to President Ram Nath Kovind for the release of all the activists jailed in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case.
“We are urging your immediate intervention as the President of India to direct ‘your government’ to act against those responsible for foisting false cases on him, his continued detention in jail and inhuman treatment. They must be held accountable. It is now incumbent that all those jailed in the Bhima Koregaon case and other detenues under politically motivated cases, misusing draconian laws like UAPA, sedition etc be released forthwith,” the letter reads.
Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old priest-activist arrested under an anti-terror law in the Elgar Parishad case last year, died on Monday in the middle of his fight for bail on health grounds. The Jesuit priest had been on a ventilator since Sunday when his health worsened.
Jailed near Mumbai since October, Stan Swamy had spent the last few months of his life fighting legal battles for even the smallest of needs.
“We the undersigned leaders of major opposition parties are writing to you in deep anguish expressing our intense grief and outrage at the death of Father Stan Swamy under custody,” the letter signed by ten opposition leaders read.
Apart from the three leaders, MK Stalin, Hemant Soren, HD Deve Gowda, Farooq Abdullah, Tejaswi Yadav, D Raja and Sitaram Yechury also signed the letter.