NEW DELHI: In the controversy surrounding the alleged denial of sipper and straw to 83-year-old Stan Swamy, the National Investigative Agency (NIA) has rubbished the allegations on Sunday. An accused in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case, Swamy was arrested on October 8 for furthering the wicked agenda on the banned outfit CPI (Maoist).
In a statement, the central investigative agency stated that Stan Swamy had falsely claimed in an application before the NIA court that his straw and sipper have been withheld by the NIA. The accused had earlier asserted that he had trouble eating and drinking without a sipper and straw due to Parkinson’s disease.
NIA informed, “NIA duly filed its reply in the Court on the scheduled date i.e. 26/11/2020 stating therein that NIA had conducted his personal search in presence of independent witnesses and no such straw and sipper were found. The Hon’ble Court rejected Swamy’s application and has issued necessary direction to the jail authorities on 26th November 2020 to provide him straw and sipper.”
NIA asserted that when Stan Swamy’s personal search was undertaken in presence of two independent witnesses no such straw or sipper was found on him as claimed by him.
The NIA stated that since the accused was placed under judicial custody at Taloja prison near Navi Mumbai, the matter rested between him and the jail authorities who fall under the jurisdiction of the Maharashtra State Administration. “The reports claiming that NIA recovered straw and sipper from accused Stan Swamy and sought 20 days’ time from the court to respond to Stan Swamy’s plea to allow him a straw and sipper in Taloja Central Jail, are false, incorrect and mischievous as NIA neither recovered any straw and sipper from the accused nor sought 20 days time to file a reply in said application,” it stressed.