Najeeb Ahmed case: India court okays closure of CBI probe of missing JNU student

A Delhi court on Monday (June 30) allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to wrap up the disappearance case of former JNU student Najeeb Ahmed. He disappeared on October 15, 2016.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari accepted the central investigating agency's closure report, but also granted freedom to reopen the case if evidence in the case is discovered.

In 2018, the federal probe agency had shut down its probe in the case as its attempts to track down Ahmed went in vain. On this, the CBI submitted its closure report to the court after receiving permission from the Delhi High Court. Najeeb Ahmed's mother, Fatima Nafees, had moved court against the CBI's closure report. Her lawyer had pleaded in court that it was a "political case", and the CBI had "caved under the pressure of its masters".

Ahmed, a JNU M.Sc Biotechnology student, had disappeared from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of the university on October 15, 2016, following a fight with some students allegedly belonging to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad the night before.

But the hostel warden had assured of having witnessed Najeeb depart the university campus by auto.

The missing case, who was originally investigated by the Delhi Police, was then handed over to the CBI. The central agency had previously informed the court in early April that Najeeb Ahmed had declined treatment at Safdarjung Hospital after he was allegedly beaten up by the ABVP-supporting students.

It also said that the doctor and medical attendant of the hospital's statements could not be accepted in the lack of documents confirming the visit of Ahmed. "After visiting the hospital, Ahmed was told to have an MLC made. But he along with his friend Md Quasim returned to the hostel and did not have any MLC made," the investigation officer alleged.

ACJM Maheshwari had previously this month said that she would rule on whether or not to act on the police report advising the closure of a case on Ahmed's disappearance.

What happened in 2016?

According to Najeeb Ahmed's mother, he had returned to JNU after holidays on October 13, 2016. On the intervening night of October 15-16, he had phoned his mother to inform her that something went wrong with him. Fatima Nafees, in her FIR, also said that Ahmed's roommate, Kasim, informed her that there was a scuffle and he was hurt.

The very next day, she boarded a bus from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh to see her son. When she arrived in Delhi, she called Najeeb and told him to come to his hostel. When she arrived at his hostel room number 106 in the Mahi-Mandvi hostel, there was not a trace of Najeeb Ahmed. He had been missing ever since.