Condemning the arrest of 83-year-old priest Fr. Stan Swamy in Jharkhand, members of the Karnataka United Christian Forum and Human Rights sought the Union government’s intervention to ensure the immediate release of the activist.
Rev. Robert Miranda, president of the forum, in a memorandum addressed to President Ramnath Kovind through submitted the Deputy Commissioner, stated that Fr. Swamy is one among the human rights activists arrested on similar charges in the recent past.
Rev. Miranda said that the National Investigation Agency‘s (NIA) case against Fr. Swamy was entirely fabricated. He was interrogated multiple times and his house was raided.
The activist’s arrest is part of a larger conspiracy to suppress his voice of dissent, Fr. Miranda added.
Fr. Swamy was arrested on the charge of having links with Maoist rebels and the violence that took place against Dalits at Bhima Koregaon. But, he was nowhere connected with the incident, Fr. Miranda said.
Meanwhile, he became the voice of the tribal and Dalit communities in Jharkhand. At the same time, he was a vocal critic of the government’s attempts to amend land laws and the Land Acquisition Act in Jharkhand and a strong advocate of the Forest Rights Act, he said.
The protestors demanded the release of the activist on humanitarian grounds.