JNU student Najeeb Ahmed missing case: Delhi High Court allows CBI to file closure report

The Delhi High Court Monday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a closure report in the missing case of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmed, who mysteriously disappeared in October in 2016. The Bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel allowed the Najeeb’s mother Fatima Nafees to move the trial court for a status report and to raise grievances before it when the report is being filed. Najeeb, 27, had gone missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of JNU on October 15, 2016, following a scuffle with some students allegedly affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) the previous night. Timeline of events. The court’s directive comes a month after the investigative agency informed the bench about its decision to close the case under section 169 (release of accused when evidence is deficient) of the CrPC. “We have taken a decision to file a report under section 169 (release of accused when evidence is deficient) of the CrPC. We have completed the investigation. We did not want to file a closure report before the trial court without bringing it to the knowledge of this court. The court may dispose of the petition today after which we will file the closure report before the magistrate and the petitioner may file a protest petition there, if they wish to,” CBI’s counsel Nikhil Goel was quoted by PTI as saying. Colin Gonsalves, the counsel of Najeeb’s mother, had opposed the CBI’s submission and had accused the agency of protecting the accused by not interrogating them. “The CBI has succumbed to the pressure of its masters. It has failed to conduct the investigation in a fair and true manner. Why CBI was not doing a custodial interrogation of the accused?” PTI had quoted him as saying. Source: The Indian Express