NEW DELHI: Almost two years after Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmed went missing from the campus, the Delhi High Court on Monday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a closure report in the trial court in the case, noting the agency’s submission that it had probed all the aspects of the matter but could not find anything that proved an offence was committed against Najeeb.
The decision on whether the closure report will be considered will however, be taken by the trial court.
A bench of justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel also rejected Ahmed’s mother Fatima Nafees’s plea to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the case. However, the court said that Najeeb’s mother, Fatima Nafees can raise all her contentions before the trial court.
The court also gave a clean chit to the CBI and dismissed Fatima’s contention that the agency did not act fairly or it was “under any influence or political compulsions in its decision to file a closure report”.
Ahmed had gone missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of JNU here on October 15, 2016, following a scuffle with some students allegedly affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The probe was handed over to the CBI on May 16 last year.
While disposing off the habeas corpus petition filed by Fatima, the bench also observed that the CBI probe was not “tardy and slow” as contended by her. Fatima said, “I am heartbroken at this verdict. The CBI has conducted the most biased investigation. Its sole objective has been to shield those who assaulted my son. I still retain faith in the judiciary and will not stop until I find justice for my son.
“While we are deeply dejected with the verdict of the HC, we are determined to carry this struggle forward. The CBI and the Delhi Police have become puppets under the Modi regime and it has been apparent in the way in which the investigation... has been severely compromised,” said N Sai Balaji, president, JNUSU.