JNU missing student case: CBI decides to look for Najeeb Ahmed in Delhi’s morgues

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, is now trying to trace him in files of unidentified bodies. It is looking at cases registered by Delhi police over the past one year.

Najeeb went missing on October 15 last year after an on-campus scuffle the night before with alleged Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members in JNU’s Mahi-Mandavi hostel.

In a letter accessed by Express, the CBI has asked Delhi police to provide details of unidentified bodies since Najeeb went missing. According to official data available with the police, there are over 3,000 such cases. For better co-ordination, the CBI has requested the police to appoint a nodal officer.

The deputy inspector general of CBI, special crime, Jasbir Singh, has written to Delhi police commissioner Amulya Patnaik seeking details. 

“It is requested that details of unidentified dead bodies (UIDB)/UD cases registered after 15.10.2016 till date at all police stations/ police posts/ SCRB/ CID/Crime Branch under your jurisdiction wherein the deceased having resemblance with Najeeb Ahmed (particulars/photograph is enclosed herewith), may kindly be provided to this office,” the CBI said in its letter.  “A nodal officer may kindly be appointed for proper coordination and future communication,” the CBI added. Investigators have also asked for information the police has so far received on Najeeb.

On Tuesday, the CBI submitted a status report on the investigations in Delhi High Court. The report said that the auto-rickshaw driver who, the Delhi police claimed, had dropped Najeeb at Jamia Millia Islamia had retracted his statement.

CBI sources claimed the auto-rickshaw driver told sleuths that he was forced to give a statement that he picked 27-year-old Najeeb Ahmed, a student of M.Sc Biotechnology, from the JNU campus and dropped him at Jamia Millia Islamia on October 15 last year.