The National Investigation Agency or the NIA has gone ahead and opposed the bail plea of arrested activist and tribal rights champion Stan Swamy. The NIA has alleged that the aged activist has been part of a deep seated conspiracy involving the instigation of violence in 2017.
It has to be noted that the NIA had arrested the tribal rights champion in this regard on October 8 under the Bhima Koregaon case.
The NIA has again asserted through a special court that it has ample evidence against him that proves that he has been involved in the “deep-rooted conspiracy” and that he had a strong involvement with the maoist movement.
The NIA has been probing his emails and writings and a set of his belongings in relation to the charges that have been labelled upon him and based on these, the NIA has said that releasing him on bail is not possible.
The special NIA court is scheduled to hear his bail application on December 21 and will also be hearing applications filed by Swamy himself for the returning of his bag that had been seized by the agency during the arrest.
He had also asked for access to clone copies of the data that has been taken as evidence against him from the hard disk of the seized laptop. According to a report in The Indian Express, large amounts of data were taken from him while he was being taken for arrest but had received only eight terabytes of cloned data.
The NIA denied the allegations and said that it had only taken a small amount of information and had cloned exactly the same information and given it to Stan Swamy. Stan Swamy has been arrested along with several other activists who have been jailed under the UAPA and are faced with charges involving participation in Maoist conspiracy to overthrow the government, the reports against them allege that several anti-government sentiments were built by these activists at the Elgar Parishad event that had been organised by various Dalit outfits in Pune and the eventual unfolding of many caste based riots in the nearby village of Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018.
Stan Swamy has said that the government and the NIA are targeting him because of his writings on caste and land struggles and his extensive work for the downtrodden sections in India.
