NIA, Maharashtra don’t want report on Stan Swamy’s death given to HC

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Maharashtra government on Friday said there was no need for the magistrate’s report into the factors that led to Father Stan Swamy’s death be submitted before the Bombay High Court.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, for the NIA, told a division bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar that since Swamy’s appeal (challenging NIA court’s rejection of his bail) was abated, there was no question of having a report in this appeal.

He argued that every appeal as per the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) shall be abated on the death of the accused, provided the appeal was against the sentence or conviction.

Public prosecutor Aruna Pai agreed with Mr Singh.

The bench said, “If the appeal goes, everything goes, nothing remains.”

‘Supervisory jurisdiction’

Senior advocate Mihir Desai, for Swamy, told the court that he was invoking constitutional jurisdiction of the High Court. He said it may not be in the strict sense of the appeal, but it was in supervisory jurisdiction.

He referred to Aruna Shanbaug (a nurse who was left in a vegetative state for 42 years after being raped by a sweeper at the hospital) and was seeking passive euthanasia. It was held that the High Court was parens patriae (parents of the nation) for all the deceased, he stated.

The court told him to send his written submissions on this and that they would ponder over it, and adjourned the matter on August 4.

Mr. Desai sought an investigation into the factors that led to Swamy’s death under sections 176 (inquiry by magistrate into the cause of death) of the CrPC and it should comply with the guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission. He also wanted Fr. Frazer Mascerhanas, who is next kin of Swamy, be allowed to participate in it and the report of the inquiry submitted to the High Court.