RANCHI: A Maharashtra Police team carried out a fresh raid at the Ranchi residence of Jesuit social activist and preacher Father Stan Swamy on Wednesday morning. The raid was in connection with the probe into a public meeting organised days before violence erupted at the Bhima Koregaon village near Pune in Maharashtra on January 1, 2018. The resultant clash left one dead while public property worth lakhs destroyed.
The probe team seized the preacher’s computer hard disc and modem and also obtained his Gmail and Facebook passwords. The activist is an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case in the which the police has so far booked 23 people, prominent rights activists and intellectuals. Along with 19 others, he is also accused to have stoked tension in Jharkhand on the ‘Pathalgadi’ issue through Facebook posts and was booked for sedition. A tribal community in Jharkhand, the Pathalgadi people have been waging a struggle challenging state institutions.
Swamy’s residence at Ranchi’s Nakdom was earlier raided in August last year. Sources said the preacher objected when he was asked to put his signature on the Panchnamma (witness testimony), which was written in Marathi. It was only after he was assured that a copy of the document in Hindi would be provided to him within four days that he agreed to put pen to paper. Voicing concern over “repeated raids at his residence”, Swamy said he was clueless what the police wants from him. He said he was ready to face any inquiry.