New Delhi: A Delhi court Monday accepted a closure report from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a case linked to the 2016 disappearance of Jawaharlal Nehru University student Najeeb Ahmed.
Ahmed, a first-year MSc student in bio-technology, went missing on 15 October 2016 from his hostel. He had allegedly been in a scuffle with students linked to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) the previous night.
On Monday, the Rouse Avenue court finally accepted the report the agency filed in October 2018, marking the closure of the eight-year-old case.
In the court order, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari noted that the CBI had covered all “conceivable aspects which could have been investigated upon” regarding Ahmed’s whereabouts.
“An analysis of the above discussion shows that CBI has undertaken a holistic investigation and exhausted all options,” the order said. The judge further rejected the allegations of lapses by the CBI raised by Ahmed’s mother, Fatima Nafees.
However, the judge allowed the CBI to reopen the case in case it receives any credible information related to Ahmed’s whereabouts.
“This Court is cognisant of the plight of an anxious mother (the protest petitioner), who has been on a quest to find out about her missing son since 2016, but the investigating agency in the present case i.e. CBI cannot be faulted for the investigation carried out,” the order said.
“The quest for truth is the foundation of every criminal investigation, yet there are cases where the investigation conducted cannot achieve its logical conclusion, despite the best efforts of the investigating machinery.”
On 15 October 2016, Ahmed’s mother approached the Vasant Kunj Police station complaining that her son was missing from his room, 106, in Mahi-Mandavi hostel at the JNU campus in Delhi.
She found her son’s absence suspicious since he was aware that she was coming to visit. Ahmed had taken admission in JNU in August 2016 and had returned after a vacation only two days before going missing. He was 27 at the time.
By 16 October, the Delhi Police conceded that it had not found any evidence related to his whereabouts.
With no information emerging about her son’s whereabouts even months after his disappearance, Fatima approached the Delhi High Court to have the case transferred to the CBI.
On 2 June 2017, the agency registered an FIR under Section 365 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that deals with abductions and kidnappings.
A year later, after examining witnesses and recording their statements, including those of the JNU wardens and Ahmed’s roommate, the CBI approached the court to file a closure report. The Delhi High Court, which was monitoring its progress, allowed the agency to file the report in October 2018.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
Also Read: Inside story of the hunt for Najeeb Ahmed, the JNU student who disappeared into thin air