Father Stan Swamy tests positive for coronavirus after being moved to private hospital

By Dilip -

NB: What remains to be said about Indian justice? When an 84 year old Jesuit father with Parkinson's disease and loss of hearing is repeatedly denied even a medical bail hearing, kept in jail without trial during a deadly pandemic, and is now found infected with Covid, what may we think? All he ever did was agitate peacefully for the rights of the poor. What lesson are the Home Ministry and the judges conveying to us? That to take seriously the democratic rights granted to us under the Constitution, to struggle peacefully for basic human rights is tantamount to sedition and may result in prolonged incarceration even to the point of death? Thank you, Your Lordships and Your Excellencies. I only hope that some day your children will ask you when and how and why you lost your conscience and your humanity. DS

Father Stan Swamy tests positive for coronavirus after being moved to private hospital

Tribal rights activist and Jesuit priest Stan Swamy tested positive for the coronavirus infection after he was moved to a hospital, his friend and colleague Father Joseph Xavier said on Sunday. Swamy, who is in custody in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, is currently at the Holy Family Hospital in Mumbai. On Friday, the Bombay High Court had ordered Swamy to be moved to a hospital for 15 days. Xavier told Scroll.in that 84-year-old Swamy’s health condition was stable. “He was admitted to the hospital on Friday,” he said. “The doctors were treating him and were doing some CT scan.”

He said that the activist was admitted to the intensive care unit after his condition deteriorated. “They [doctors] said we need to keep him [in the ICU] as he needs some oxygen,” Xavier said, adding that his condition is stable. The tests were conducted on Saturday and the results came back on Sunday, he said.

On May 21, Swamy had told the Bombay High Court that he did not want to be admitted to a hospital, instead urging the court to consider his request for interim bail. “I have been in deteriorating condition,” he said. “I would rather be in Ranchi. I do not think any of that [hospitalisation] is going to help.”…

https://scroll.in/latest/996170/activist-stan-swamy-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-after-being-moved-to-private-hospital

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