Missing JNU student: A year on, ‘where is Najeeb Ahmad’ cries get louder

On Friday afternoon, student groups from JNU, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia , Najeeb’s family members and activists held protests over the agency’s alleged inability to trace Najeeb.

At least two hundred voices cried out in unison outside the headquarters of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at Lodhi Road on Friday: “Where is Najeeb? Find Najeeb..”

On Sunday, it will be a year since the morning Najeeb Ahmad, an MSc student from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), was reported missing. Despite probe by four different teams of Delhi Police, Crime Branch and the CBI, there is still no sign of the 28-year-old.

On Friday afternoon, student groups from JNU, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia , Najeeb’s family members and activists held protests over the agency’s alleged inability to trace Najeeb.

A year ago, the PhD student had a reported spat with other students in his hostel during which he was allegedly beaten up. He had reportedly slapped a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The following morning, he was reported missing. Delhi Police registered a kidnapping case. A special investigative team (SIT) was then formed to trace him. The probe was later handed to the Crime Branch. In May, the Delhi High Court transferred the case to the CBI, but there has been no information about the man whose disappearance remains the most talked-about issue on JNU campus, even today.

Demanding to meet senior officials on Friday, protestors tried to break barricades and enter the CBI headquarters building which led to a brief scuffle between them and the police. Najeeb’s mother, Fatima Nafees who came from Badaun in Uttar Pradesh, said she has been waiting for action in the case without any results.

“Nobody in the CBI calls to give me updates on the case. I call them and come to Delhi frequently, but they refuse to meet me saying there is no update,” she told HT.

“For one year I have been protesting. I have protested in Delhi, Hyderabad and other parts of the country, but it has resulted in nothing. There is still no trace of my son. The CBI investigation officer doesn’t even come to the court hearings, only their lawyers come.”

Former JNU Student’s Union (JNUSU) president Mohit Pandey said that the probe has been handed from one unit another, but there is no progress. “It has been a year since Najeeb went missing from a university in the National Capital. The case has moved from the police to an SIT, and from them to the Crime Branch, and then finally to the CBI. But there has been no progress.”

The protesters said they would continue their agitation over the weekend if CBI officers did not meet them. Pandey said they were only protesting to know updates in the case, which they have been denied till date.

The reward for information about Najeeb’s whereabouts has been increased by police from ₹1 lakh to ₹10 lakh. No one has come forward with any information on Najeeb so far. Within days of taking over the probe last year, the CBI declared a separate reward of ₹10 lakh.

The walls in JNU are still marked with “Find Najeeb” posters. Student leaders, cutting across parties and ideologies, discussed Najeeb in the run-up to the student election. He was discussed in prime-time news channels and before elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Najeeb is everywhere. But he remains missing.