New Delhi: On May 7, the Nagpur police arrested 26-year-old Kerala-based journalist Rejaz M. Sheeba Sydeek for opposing the Operation Sindoor – India’s military strikes against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Since his arrest, followed by three police remands, the grounds for his detention have shifted rapidly. The police initially claimed his arrest was due to his “anti-Indian Army” and “anti-India” posts on his social media accounts and for sharing an Instagram photo of himself brandishing “two pistols.” He was soon accused of having alleged contacts with several banned organisations, including the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. The police have now alleged that he has links with the Pune-based cultural group Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), an organisation run by Dalit and Bahujan youths. Over the years, the KKM has come under the state’s scanner for its critical take on policies and was eventually accused of being a “front” for the banned Maoist organisation.On May 15, the police produced Rejaz at around 7.15 pm, well past court hours. By the time the order for his custody was passed, it was nearly 10 pm. The police sought his custody for an additional 10 days, but the court granted only three days.Rejaz, who studied social work at Kerala University, has been writing for the news platforms Maktoob, and Counter Currents. His articles have primarily focused on police excesses and human rights violations in prisons, among other issues. According to Rejaz’s friends and colleagues, as a young student, he was part of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), a left-wing student organisation. He later became disillusioned and joined the Democratic Students’ Association (DSA), an organisation believed to have ultra-left leanings. A visit to PuneThe police have claimed that in 2023, Rejaz had visited Pune and had met members of the KKM. Three KKM artists – Jyoti Jagtap, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor – are languishing in jail in connection with the Elgar Parishad case. The police claim that they want to investigate if Rejaz had been to Pune to meet two others – Santosh Shelar alias ‘Painter’ and Prashant Kamble alias ‘Laptop’ – in Pune. While Shelar was arrested last year, Kamble was arrested early this month– both in connection with a 2011 KKM case which is pending. The police claim that both Shelar and Kamble were underground. According to the police, Shelar was arrested after he fell ill and came overground for medical treatment. Kamble, the police claim, was working in a far away village in Thane district and was arrested from there. Both of them, as per police’s own case, had fled from Pune, but now in Rejaz’s remand application they have claimed that they want to investigate if Rejaz had been to Pune to meet the two. Before his arrest, Rejaz had been to Delhi to attend a press conference organised by the civil society platform Campaign Against State Repression. The police have branded this platform too as a “frontal organisation” now, again with no evidence to back their claims. From the conference, Rejaz came to Nagpur to meet a female friend and the two were picked up from a city hotel. While Rejaz was arrested, the woman, after several hours of questioning, was allowed to go. The police claim to have recorded her statement.GunsThe Nagpur police have secured Rejaz’s custody three times. The first remand and the FIR included only sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). He was booked under Section 149 of the BNS for “collecting arms or other materials with the intention of waging war against the Government of India.” Other charges included Sections 192, 353(1)(b), 353(2), and 353(3) of the BNS for “wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot” and “statements conducing to public mischief.”Of these, Section 149 was the most serious. This charge stemmed from an Instagram story in which Rejaz was seen holding two pistols, captioned “Licensed to defend and resist”. At the time of the FIR, the police claimed it was unclear whether the arms were real. However, eight days and three custodies later, the police questioned workers at a local shop in Nagpur where Rejaz had allegedly visited with a woman friend and posed with the pistols. The shop’s workers and owners confirmed that the pistols were air guns, and the pair had visited, posed for a picture, and left. Despite this, the Section 149 continues to be invoked against him.Terror and literatureDuring the third custody, the police added Sections 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Section 38 addresses membership in a “terrorist organisation,” while Section 39 pertains to supporting a terrorist organisation. The police claim Rejaz supports multiple terrorist organisations with differing ideologies, based on alleged literature and pamphlets found on his phone and at his Kochi residence during a raid conducted after his arrest.The content of the literature on Rejaz’s phone is not fully detailed in the remand application, beyond being described as “suspicious.” The police collected two books from Rejaz’s home – one by Karl Marx and another, Critiquing Brahmanism by K. Murali. Rejaz’s family claims these books belong to his father, a retired social sciences teacher, and neither is banned. Other books in Rejaz’s possession included He Who Defied Death: Life and Times by G.N. Saibaba, The Great Legacy of Marxism-Leninism: Lenin on the Socialist State, and Only People Make Their Own History, with an introduction by the late Marxist intellectual Aijaz Ahmad. These books, too, are widely available.The remand application also claims Rejaz was helping raise funds for the banned Maoist organisation, based on a pamphlet from Nazariya magazine found in his possession at the time of his arrest. The FIR and subsequent remand applications describe Nazariya as “grounded in the belief that revolutionary theory and organised resistance are essential to building a new world free from exploitation, inequality, and oppression.” Nazariya, active on social media, is known to espouse Maoist ideology and has recently supported the banned party’s demands for a ceasefire and peace talks. However, Nazariya is neither a banned organisation, and nor has the government declared it a “front” organisation. The Wire attempted to contact the phone number listed in the pamphlet but received no response.The Nagpur police also claim Rejaz has been in close contact with K. Murali, who was previously arrested for Maoist connections but, since his release, lives in Kochi, very close to where Rejaz lived. The police allege Murali is a member of the Maoist central committee, but this claim has not been backed with any further evidence in the remand application. Murali denies any current connection to the banned organisation, stating he was involved in the movement in the past.The police have also applied Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, which pertains to publishing or transmitting “obscene material” in electronic form. The police have not clarified what obscene material was found on Rejaz’s seized electronic devices. It remains unclear whether they are referring to the photo with the guns – now confirmed by the police to be air guns – or other undisclosed images.