A photograph has been shared on social media as activist Stan Swamy’s last days in the hospital. The 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist breathed his last on July 5. He was on ventilator support in Mumbai’s Holy Family Hospital while the Bombay High Court was hearing his medical bail plea. NIA had arrested Swamy on October 7 last year under the country’s stringent UAPA. He was accused of involvement in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence and having connections to Maoists. Swamy’s bail pleas had been rejected multiple times in court.
The photograph of an elderly man chained to a hospital bed has been shared as Swamy on both Twitter and Facebook.
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Not Stan Swamy
A reverse-image search takes one to several articles where the elderly man has been identified as convicted murderer Baburam Balram Singh. According to NDTV, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over the chaining of Singh, 92, to his hospital bed during treatment at the Etah district hospital. The outlet wrote that the photograph had emerged in May.
The Times of India reported on May 14 that Singh was found chained to the non-COVID ward of the hospital. It further said that director general (prisons) Anand Kumar suspended the jail warder and ordered an inquiry into the matter. Singh was brought to Etah jail on February 6 and is a resident of Kulla Habibpur.
Punjab Kesari reported that Singh, who is serving life imprisonment, was admitted to the hospital on May 9 after he started having severe breathing problems. Etah District Jail jailor Kuldeep Singh Bhadauria said that the officer on duty handcuffed one of the Singh’s legs and tied the end of the chain to the bed. The on-duty doctor said that Singh was suffering from some mental issues and used to repeatedly get up from the bed and run away. He was tied to purportedly stop him from running away.
A photograph of convict Baburam Balram Singh tied to a hospital bed in UP has been falsely shared as a photograph of father Stan Swamy who passed away on July 5 in Mumbai.
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