A 34-year-old techie was abducted by the Chhattisgarh police from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on 31 May. Twelve days later, he was hauled up in front of the media, on 12 June, as a "top Maoist propagandist."
In a press statement condemning the “unlawful” arrest, the People’s Union For Democratic Rights (PUDR) said that the fact that he could be picked up by the police, kept in illegal custody and then shown as ‘arrested’ before the media as a Maoist propagandist "brazenly violates the norms and procedures of law and is highly condemnable and a matter of great concern.”
Nayak had been booked by the police under Section 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), Section 4 and 5 of Explosives Substances Act, and Section 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) related to charges of membership of and support for a "terrorist organisation".
Why Did the Police Arrest Nayak?
The Chhattisgarh police stated that Nayak’s role in the Maoist conspiracy extended to writing and disseminating press releases for the rebels.
The Indian Express reports that the police state he had visited 15 countries, some of them ripe with “active rebel elements”, and that he was a part of the Co-Ordination Committee of Maoist Party and Organisations in South Asia (COCMPOSA).
A “lookout notice” had reportedly been pressed against Nayak in May 2017.
The report adds that the Bastar Police and State Intelligence Bureau had been tracking Nayak’s whereabouts for about two years, and found that he had gone out of the country in March 2017 and again in May 2017, visiting Luxembourg, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, England, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam and Nepal.
Speaking about the charges against Nayak, DM Awasthi, Special DG, Anti-Naxal Operations told Indian Express: “There was a blast in Bastar (in 2013) and they found some note, and on the basis of substance recovered, he was named. I can’t comment on these things. But a case was registered and was pending.”
Loopholes in Charges Against Nayak
Refuting the allegations against Nayak, the PUDR said that the case against Nayak was “utterly vague and based on numerous presumptions”.
1. According to the group, the 2013 IED blast case in which he was first implicated was on the basis of the fact that the police had found CPI (Maoist) leaflets issued in the names of 'Abhay' and 'Vikalp' – who they presumed was this Abhay Nayak, without clarifying further.
2. It said that one of the reasons the police arrested Nayak was because he wrote posts and articles about Naxalism and so they assumed that he was part of the Co-ordination of Maoist Party and Organisation in South Asia.
He was also accused by the police of making statements on behalf of the underground party under the name of ‘Abhay,’‘Vikalp’ and ‘Azad’– which, the group says, is ridiculous considering that it is a common Indian name.
Speaking briefly to some journalists on 12 May, the day he was hauled up as a Maoist propagandist, Nayak denied all charges and said that he wasn’t the same ‘Abhay’ from the leaflets.
He claimed that he was a freelance journalist who ran a website where he would put up news regarding Maoists.
The PUDR said that the police were trying to show that Nayak was in touch with Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhawale – all of whom were arrested for being Maoist leaders who had allegedly instigated the Bhima Koregaon violence.
“What links these recent arrests of so-called ‘urban Maoists’ is the targeting of those who have been legally and democratically raising questions of the rights of political prisoners, adivasis, dalits etc, and critiquing violations of rights by the state,” it says.
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