Chhattisgarh High Court recently denied bail to Abhay Nayak, who as per reports is the spokesperson and part of the propaganda bureau of the banned organization Communist Party of India (CPI) – Maoist. The prosecution in the court submitted that Nayak was working actively to propagate Naxalite propaganda and influencing urban youth to connect with the Maoist insurgency through his internet blog and other sites.

The bench of Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal and Justice Deepak Kumar Tiwari rejected the bail application of Nayak, taking into account the mandate of the provision to Section 43D(5) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The court observed: 

It is apparent that the appellant is a member of over ground cadre of CPI(M) and also found using the email ID to propagate the Naxal movement and ideology and he has opened the Blog Abhay Naxal Revolution and is actively involved in online recruitment of Naxal cadre. He was also found to be using proxy server to hide his identity and he is also found to have officially created ‘CPI Maoist Naxalite blog and also wrote his blogs as ‘abhaynaxalrevolution’ to hide his overtly and expressly Maoist connection. It also appears from record that he is also a member of Coordination Committee of Maoist Party and Organization of South Asia and also traveling records of 15 countries and having an amount of Rs. 17,49,881/ from international sources and from other material available on record, which completely furnished reasonable ground for believing that the allegation against the appellant is prima facie true.

Nayak was arrested on June 1, 2018, in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar for his association with the CPI (Maoist) and recruiting cadre for the banned organization. In his confessional statement, Nayak admitted that he is part of the Maoist insurgent activities. His statement said that he acted as a blogger and spokesman of the organization on social media to increase the urban-naxal cadre by influencing urban youth. 

 Nayak was booked under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC); Sections 13(1)(b), 18, 38, and 39(2) of the UAPA and Sections 8(1)(3)(5) of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005.