NEW DELHI: A CBI team today visited Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to probe the disappearance of Najeeb Ahmed, a student who has been missing from his hostel since October 16, 2016.
The team is looking into allegations that there was a scuffle between Ahmed and ABVP students in JNU's Mahi-Mandvi hostel. The investigators are likely to meet the suspects and people whose names have cropped up in the matter, sources said.
Najeeb's mother Fatima Nafees recently met the CBI investigators and gave details of the events before her son disappeared from his hostel.
Najeeb had returned to the University on October 13, 2016, after a holiday. On the intervening night of October 15-16, he called his mother to tell her something was wrong. Fatima Nafees said her son’s roommate told her that Najib was injured in a fight.
Following that conversation, Fatima took a bus from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh to reach Delhi in the afternoon. After reaching Anand Vihar, she spoke to Najib Mujahid over the phone and asked him to meet her at the hotel. But when she reached room no. 106 of the hostel, there was no trace of Najeeb.
With the Delhi police failing to find her son, Fatima approached the Delhi High Court demanding a CBI probe. On May 16, judges G S Sistani and Rekha Palli of the High Court handed over the investigation to CBI with a directive that it be monitored by an officer not less than the rank of DIG. The matter has been posted for hearing on July 17.
The High Court has time and again come down heavily on the police for failing to trace the student after several months of investigation and even remarked that it was looking for an "escape route" and was "beating around the bush".
The court had also questioned the conduct of the police, saying that it was trying to sensationalise the matter as it was filing reports in sealed covers when "there was nothing confidential, damaging or crucial" in them.