Memorials across India mark 5 years since Jesuit Father Stan Swamy died in custody

Archbishop Vincent Aind led tributes in Ranchi and activists gathered in Mumbai to honor the priest, as his supporters press on to clear his name in the Bhima Koregaon case.

Memorial programs were held across India on July 5 to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Jesuit Father Stan Swamy, the 84-year-old tribal rights activist who died in custody at a Mumbai hospital in 2021 while awaiting trial on terrorism charges.

Memorials in Ranchi and Mumbai

Archbishop Vincent Aind of Ranchi led supporters in garlanding Swamy’s bust at “Bagaicha,” meaning “garden,” the Jesuit social action center Swamy founded near Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand.

After the floral tribute, Bagaicha director Jesuit Father P.M. Antony told EWTN News: “All of us proceeded to our program hall to discuss about the present socioeconomic and political situation in the country and the state of Jharkhand today.”

The commemoration featured a screening of “Carrying the Cross,” a roughly 100-minute documentary on Swamy’s life and work.

In Mumbai, where Swamy died, the anniversary was marked in the hall of St. Peter’s Church in Bandra, where his funeral was held in 2021. The Bombay Catholic Sabha, the lay wing of the archdiocese, organized the gathering with civil society groups, at which activists paid tribute to the priest, whom they praised as a fearless advocate for the oppressed tribal communities of Jharkhand.

“We are living in times when if you do anything to fulfill either the words or the spirit of the constitution you are likely to be the next martyr,” said senior advocate Mihir Desai, who led Swamy’s legal defense.

Desai repeatedly petitioned the Bombay High Court for the elderly Jesuit’s release on bail after he was brought to Mumbai following his October 2020 arrest at Bagaicha, in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, in which he was charged along with 15 others.

“If you speak with passion about equality, about nondiscrimination, about freedom of speech — all these are fundamental rights … If you speak about these things in the spirit in which they are incorporated in the constitution, you will be treated as an anti-national,” said Desai, who had worked with the Jesuit for three decades as a civil rights lawyer.

The Bhima Koregaon case

As the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, reported at the time of his arrest in October 2020, the priest, who championed the rights of oppressed tribal communities, was detained along with 15 other activists, academics, and lawyers on terrorism charges related to the “Bhima Koregaon conspiracy.”

The arrests, carried out on the grounds that the accused were allegedly linked to a banned Maoist organization, drew condemnation abroad, including a posthumous resolution honoring Swamy’s life and work in the U.S. Congress in July 2022.

Describing Swamy’s death as “institutional murder,” Desai said “why they wanted to arrest him was because they did not want any urban or rural voice … a dissenting voice of the marginalized to be heard” and alleged that documents had been planted on his computer by hackers, about which the priest had “no clue.”

In December 2022, Arsenal Consulting, a U.S.-based digital forensics firm engaged by Swamy’s lawyers, reported that “incriminating files” had been planted on his computer through a yearslong malware campaign — a finding his supporters said showed he had been framed. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has disputed the analysis, and the trial court declined to consider it.

“Father Stan is gone. But we want the court to declare him not guilty,” said Desai, who said he is preparing a fresh petition to that end after a judicial magistrate’s inquiry concluded that the priest had died of natural causes. “Compensation [must] be paid. Accountability has to be fixed and he has to be declared as innocent,” he said.

The NIA maintains its case, alleging that Swamy aided the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) through the civil society groups he worked with; the special NIA court repeatedly denied him bail, citing what it called “prima facie” evidence.

A judicial magistrate’s inquiry, mandatory in custodial deaths, ruled his death a “natural death” and found no wrongdoing, and in May 2025 the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission accepted those findings, concluding there was nothing “unnatural” in his death and no medical negligence.

In December 2025, the Bombay High Court disposed of a petition by Swamy’s family to clear his name but granted them liberty to file a fresh challenge to the magistrate’s report.

Speakers noted that all 15 surviving co-accused have since been granted bail, while Swamy did not live to see trial.

Teesta Setalvad, who heads Citizens for Justice and Peace, described Swamy as “a priest who jumped out beyond [clerical] culture and took up perverted cases [against the poor tribals] and worked for the release of prisoners, exposing fabricated cases.”

Activist Irfan Engineer read out a protest letter from Surendra Gadling — the last of the 16 accused still jailed, now over a separate case — who was staging a one-day hunger strike at Taloja Central Jail, where Swamy had also been held.

“Father Stan Swamy was a victim of institutional murder because he refused to surrender before those in power and chose to stand firmly for the rights of Adivasis [tribals], Dalits, and the marginalized and oppressed masses,” Gadling wrote. “He fearlessly raised his voice against injustice, repression, and attacks on democratic rights. This one-day hunger strike is to protest against the institutional repression that led to his death.”

Anand Teltumbde, a former professor at the Goa Institute of Management who was released on bail after 31 months in the case, told EWTN News: “July 5 has become a historic day for the country with 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy’s death in custody.”

Dolphy D’Souza, a Bombay Catholic Sabha spokesman, recalled: “During Father Stan Swamy’s funeral at peak COVID time, only 25 people were allowed inside the church here and many of us had to wait outside. Today we are all here to remember him.”

Across India, the anniversary drew commemorations in several cities, including New Delhi, along with a spontaneous wave of social media posts remembering the priest’s imprisonment and death in custody and pressing for his name to be cleared.