Joe, please come over to Ranchi,” Father Stan Swamy said to Father Joseph Xavier, director, Indian Social Institute, Bengaluru, over the telephone on September 30, 2020. Stan sensed the National Investigation Agency was planning to invoke against him the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and whisk him away to Mumbai, where the Bhima Koregaon case accused had been dumped into jail. He knew it would not matter to NIA sleuths that he was 83 years old, his body ravaged by Parkinson’s disease.

On October 1, Joe arrived at Bagaicha, which houses the Centre for Social Action of the order of Jesuits. Joe immediately went into a meeting with Stan and others. What should be their response in case Stan was arrested? “I will stop eating and drinking, not even take water,” Stan said. “That will bring a speedy end to my bodily life.” He said they could hand over his body to the nearest hospital for medical research.