Najeeb Ahmed case: HC allows CBI to file closure report

The Delhi High Court on Monday allowed the CBI to file a closure report in a trial court here in missing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmed case.

Ahmed went missing from the varsity campus in 2016 after a fight with some students during union polls.

The division bench of the high court, however, left it to the trial court to decide whether to accept the closure report or not.

Disposing off the petition filed by Najeeb's mother Fatima Nafees in November 2016 seeking direction to the Delhi police to trace her son, the court said that she can raise "all contentions available to her" before the trial court.

The division bench also declined to allow the prayer of the petitioner (Nafees) for the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case.

“This court has monitored the investigation of the CBI up to the stage where the CBI is in a position to file a report before the criminal court concerned. What should happen hereafter is for the criminal court to decide and not this court,” the division bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel said.

“Consequently, the prayer of the petitioner that the court should constitute a SIT and monitor its work, thus removing the CBI from the picture, has to be declined,” the bench added.

Twenty-seven-year-old Najeeb, a student of MSc (Bio-Technology) at JNU, went missing on October 15, 2016, a day after a fight with a group of students who were supporters of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Najeeb had enrolled for MSc programme in JNU on August 1, 2016.

While Najeeb's mother expressed dissatisfaction with the high court's order, stating that she would approach the Supreme Court, the JNU Students Union (JNUSU) also felt “deeply dejected” by the court's decision and vowed to take the struggle forward.

2 yrs & no clue

“It has been two years (since Najeeb went missing). I had high hopes in court but we didn't move even an inch. Security agencies misguided the court. All that is happening over the past two years is at the behest of those in power,” she told reporters.

The Delhi Police registered an FIR under Section 365 of the Indian Penal Code for kidnapping. An award of Rs 50,000 was also announced for any information relating to Najeeb and his disappearance.

The Delhi High Court later handed over the case to the CBI but the investigation agency too failed to trace Najeeb.