‘Anti-India’, air guns: How the grounds for a Kerala journalist’s detention have shifted rapidly
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 in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, 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.”
The police have now said 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 7.15pm, 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.
The 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.
