It is a testimony to how draconian acts have been used against innocent people for opposing the government in pursuing justice for the oppressed, when Jesuit priest Fr. Stan Swamy became the oldest person in India to be charged with terrorism-related offences after the National Investigation Agency(NIA) took him into custody in Jharkhand on October 8,2020 without office warrant. The 83-year old Fr. Stan Swamy was named as suspect in the 2018 Elgaar Parishad case, based on an FIR filed in Pune alleging that banned Naxalite groups had organized the evening programme organised(Elgaar Parishad) in the city on December 31, 2017, on the eve of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. The Elgar Parishad case was originally investigated by the Pune police but after the BJP government led by Devendra Fadnavis fell in Maharashtra and a tri-party government of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress took charge in the state, the Central home ministry decided to move the case away from the local police to the NIA. Dalits celebrate Bhima Koregaon battle each year to commemorate the victory of a force of 834 soldiers of the East India Company among who were Mahars(untouchables/Dalits) against a 20,000-strong Maratha army of high-caste Peshwas. To commemorate the defeat of the Peshwas, the British commissioned an obelisk to honour 49 of its fallen soldiers among who were 22 Mahars. For the Mahars, the annual victory celebration is more than a battle won; it was a humiliating defeat meted out to the high caste Peshwas. Though the charges were trumped up and despite strong appeals by UN Human Rights body, Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, PUCL and scores of others, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on October 23 rejected the bail plea of Fr. Stan Swamy. What had made Fr.Stan a prime target of the previous governments in Jharkhand and Maharashtra and presently, the government at the Centre, was related to his works and activities. Fr. Stan Swamy spent close to five decades in the tribal region of Jharkhand working on the forest rights of the Adivasi community. He has been a critical voice in the region against police excesses and the government’s failure to properly implement the fifth schedule of the constitution in the state. He had also from time to time questioned the indiscriminate arrests of Adivasi youths in the state. In short, Fr.Stan has proved to be a thorn in the flesh which the Centre, through NIA wants to remove. In a recent statement, People’s Union for Civil Liberties(PUCL) had pointed out that the true reason for NIA arresting Fr. Stan Swamy today is because he had dared to expose the large scale abuse of anti-terror and sedition laws by the previous BJP-led Jharkhand government. Thousands of Adivasis were falsely implicated and arrested for exercising their fundamental right of protest in the Pathalgadi movement and kept in prison without hearing. He had also taken up various forest grab by big multinational companies and was branded as a communist. In short, Fr.Stan who hails from Virahalur village near Trichinapally (TN) has been fighting powerful people for decades, to protect the weak and untouchables. Even though old and ailing and now facing awesome draconian laws, Fr.Stan is not afraid because he remains true to his faith.