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Delhi court allows CBI to close case of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed
CBI had closed its investigation into the case in 2018, after its efforts to trace Najeeb Ahmed did not yield any results.
A Delhi court on Monday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation to close the missing case of former JNU student Najeeb Ahmed. He had gone missing on October 15, 2016.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari accepted the central probe agency's closure report, but also granted liberty to reopen the case if any evidence in the matter is found.
In 2018, the federal investigating agency had closed its investigation into the case as its efforts to trace Ahmed did not yield any results. Following this, the CBI filed its closure report before the court after getting permission to do so from the Delhi High Court.
Najeeb Ahmed's mother, Fatima Nafees, had challenged the CBI's closure report in court. Her counsel had argued before the court that it was a "political case", adding that the CBI had "succumbed to the pressure of its masters".
Ahmed, a student of M.Sc Biotechnology at JNU, had gone missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of the university on October 15, 2016, after a scuffle with some students allegedly associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad the previous night.
However, the hostel warden had confirmed seeing Najeeb leave the university premises by auto.
The missing case, which was initially being probed by the Delhi Police, was later transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The central agency informed the court earlier in April that Najeeb Ahmed had refused treatment at Safdarjung Hospital after allegedly being assaulted by the ABVP-affiliated students.
It also said that the statements of the hospital's doctor and medical attendant could not be taken due to the absence of documents corroborating Ahmed's visit.
"Upon visiting the hospital, Ahmed was advised to get an MLC prepared. However, he, accompanied by his friend Md Quasim, went back to the hostel and did not get any MLC prepared," the investigating officer (IO) claimed.
ACJM Maheshwari had earlier this month said that she would decide on whether or not to accept the police report recommending the closure of a case on the disappearance of Ahmed.
What happened in 2016?
According to Najeeb Ahmed's mother, he had returned to JNU after the holidays on October 13, 2016. In the intervening night of October 15-16, he had called his mother to tell her that something wrong had happened to him.
In her FIR, Fatima Nafees also said that Ahmed's roommate, Kasim, told her that there was a fight, and he was injured.
The next day, she decided to take a bus from Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr to meet her son. When she reached Delhi, she spoke to Najeeb and asked him to meet at his hostel.
But when she reached his room in the Mahi-Mandvi hostel, room 106, there was no trace of Najeeb Ahmed. He had been missing since then.
