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| - Fact Check: Unrelated image shared claiming late Fr Stan Swamy tied to his hospital bed
An image of an elderly man on oxygen support and his feet chained to the footboard of the hospital bed went viral on social media with the claim that the man in the photo is late Fr Swamy.
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India Today Fact Check
This is Baburam Balwan Singh, a murder convict, in a government hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Etah as of May 2021. A jail official had faced suspension for chaining the 92-year-old inmate to a hospital bed.
Eighty-four-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal activist Father Stan Swamy, who was one of the accused in the Elgar Parishad case, passed away on July 5 following a cardiac arrest at Holy Family Hospital in Mumbai, as informed by his counsel to the Bombay High Court.
An image of an elderly man on oxygen support and his feet chained to the footboard of the hospital bed went viral on social media with the claim that the man in the photo is late Fr Swamy.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that the man in the viral image is not Fr Swamy but Baburam Balwan Singh, a convicted murderer, who was admitted at a government hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Etah.
A jail official was later suspended for chaining the 92-year-old inmate to the hospital bed.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here and here.
AFWA probe
We did a reverse search of the image in question on Google and found the same image was carried by multiple media in May 2021.
According to an NDTV report, the man in the image is ninety-two-year-old Baburam Balwan Singh, a murder convict who was lodged in a district jail of Uttar Pradesh's Etah.
The man serving life imprisonment was taken to Etah's government hospital in May 2021 due to breathing problems. As per reports, after the image of the man went viral, UP Additional Director General (Jail), Anand Kumarhad suspended warder Ashok Yadav and sought clarification from his supervisory officer.
Quoting Etah District Jail jailor Kuldeep Singh Bhadauria, Punjab Kesari reported that it was an officer on duty who had handcuffed Singh's legs to the bed.
As per the report, an on-duty doctor said the inmate had mental health issues and used to repeatedly run away from his bed and that's why was tied to the bed to avoid that from happening again.
Who was Fr Stan Swamy?
Priest-activist Fr. Swamy was lodged in Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai after his arrest last year in connection with the Elgar Parishad case. He was charged under anti-terror law by the National Investigation Agency.
In May Fr. Swamy had tested positive for Covid-19 and was claimed to be suffering from several ailments, including the Parkinson's disease. On May 28, Fr Swamy told a vacation bench of the high court via videoconferencing that his health had consistently declined at the Taloja prison.
Last month, the NIA had filed an affidavit before the HC opposing Swamy's bail plea. It said there did not exist a "conclusive proof" of his medical ailments.
On July 4, he was put on ventilator support following post Covid-19 complications in the lungs and pneumonia. He died ahead of his bail hearing in the Bombay High Court.
Father #StanSwamy, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, died of cardiac arrest on Monday, 5 July, a day before his bail hearing.
Read more here: https://t.co/dDB9YaZs7e pic.twitter.com/r6dr41YKPv— The Quint (@TheQuint) July 5, 2021
It is however clear that the image in circulation is that of a prisoner from Uttar Pradesh and not Fr. Swamy.
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