Najeeb Ahmed case closure: Probe agencies' 'negligence' led to this day, says his mother

New Delhi: Fatima Nafis, the mother of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed who went missing in 2016, accused CBI and Delhi Police on Tuesday of "negligence" in her son's case and said that even if she has to knock on the Supreme Court's doors for justice, she will do it.

In a Facebook post, she said she will fight till her last breath.

A Delhi court on Monday (June 30) allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to close Ahmed's case, saying that the agency "exhausted all options".

Ahmed, a first-year student, went missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on October 15, 2016, after a scuffle with some students allegedly affiliated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) the previous night.

The case was initially probed by Delhi Police and later transferred to the CBI.

Nafis said her fight is not just for her son, but for every mother who is seeking justice for her child.

"And if I have to go to the Supreme Court of this country, I will go there too," she said.

"It's been... (almost) nine years since my Najeeb went missing. But the negligence shown by Delhi Police and CBI from the very first day has led to this moment -- the court accepted the CBI's closure report," Nafis said in her post.

"Many times I ask myself — how can I give up hope? How can I let my courage break? He is my son after all. I want my son back. If I have to go to every court in this country for that, I will. I will fight till my last breath," she said.

Neither Delhi Police nor CBI arrested or took any action against the ABVP-linked students, "the goons who assaulted my son and then made him disappear," she charged.

Even the biggest investigative agencies and the entire judicial system have not been able to tell where my son is, Nafis said.

"For years, lies and falsehoods were spread about my son. The Delhi High Court later ordered all such content to be removed from digital and social media platforms," she said.

Nafis, who was at the forefront of protests along with JNU students to demand a fair probe in her son's case, praised those who stood with her.

"Their solidarity and this shared struggle give me strength.

"Throughout this time, when the system tried to silence us, it was students from JNU and from across the country — from colleges and universities like AMU and Jamia — who stood with me. These very children faced police batons on roads and raised their voices for us," she said.

The CBI closed its investigation into the case in October 2018 as its efforts to trace Ahmed did not yield any result. The agency filed its closure report after getting permission from the Delhi High Court.

Nafis' counsel said earlier that this was a "political case" in which the "CBI has succumbed to the pressure of its masters".

While it accepted the CBI's closure report, the court granted liberty to the agency to reopen the investigation on the receipt of any credible information on Ahmed's whereabouts and intimate the court accordingly.