Delhi High Court allows CBI to file closure report in Najeeb Ahmed case

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday allowed Central Bureau of Investigation to file a closure report in the case related to JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, who had gone missing from the campus nearly two years ago. 

A bench of justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel "declined" the plea of the missing student's mother, Fatima Nafees, to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and monitor the probe, thereby removing the CBI from the investigation.

The bench said Nafees, who had moved the high court in November 2016 seeking directions to the police to trace her son, "can raise all contentions available to her before the trial court" and disposed of the plea.

Nafees said she would approach the Supreme Court against the HC ruling.

“It's been 2 years. I had high hopes from Court but we didn't move even an inch. Security agencies misguided court. We'll go to the Supreme Court. All that is happening since last twi years is being done under the pressure by those sitting in power,” she said while holding back her tears. 

The court had on September 4 reserved its decision on the petition filed by the student’s mother after concluding hearing of arguments of her lawyer and that of the CBI, which took over the investigation on May 16 last year.

Ahmed had gone missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on October 15, 2016, following



a scuffle with some other students, allegedly affiliated to the ABVP, the previous night. 

The counsel for Nafees had earlier said nine students were named in a complaint filed by 18 students, who were eyewitnesses to the alleged assault on Ahmed, yet they were not interrogated. The nine students named in the complaint have denied all the allegations against them.

The CBI, which took over the probe from the Delhi police, had told the court that it has decided to file a closure report in the case as it has investigated all the angles and does not think that any offence was committed against the missing person.

However, the lawyer for the student’s mother contended in court that it was a “political case” and that the “CBI has succumbed to the pressure of its masters”.

The CBI, on September 4, had told the high court that it has not yet filed the closure report before the trial court concerned as it wanted to first bring it to the knowledge of the high court.

The CBI had submitted that its investigation was complete as it has probed all the angles left by the Delhi police and it did not think there was any offence committed against the missing person. 

It had said the petition may be disposed of by the high court, after which it will file the closure report before the magistrate “and the petitioner may file a protest petition there, if they wish to”.