Stan Swamy

Jharkhand

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on June 13 2019 regarding the illegal raid, intimidation and harassment of human rights defender Fr Stan Swamy by Pune police in his office Baghicha, Namkum, Ranchi.

On June 12, 2019 an eight-member team of the Maharashtra police raided Fr Swamy’s office without a valid search warrant for about three and a half hours. His articles like computers, hard disks and internet modem were sized and the team members forced him to give his email and Facebook passwords. Last year on August 28, 2018, in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, Pune Police had raided Fr Swamy’s home. Pune Police had arrested 10 activists for allegedly being involved in an event that preceded the violence between Dalits and Marathas at Bhima Koregaon near Pune on January 1, 2018. They are accused of masterminding the violence and having links with the banned Communist Party of India - Maoists.

HRDA has prayed immediate and transparent investigation along with conduction of trial monitoring in the Pune court cases relating to arrests in Bhima Koregaon case where nine prominent HRDs have been arrested.