A Delhi court on Monday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to close its probe into the disappearance of Najeeb Ahmed, a former student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), who went missing nearly nine years ago.
Ahmed was last seen on 15 October 2016, and the case has remained unsolved despite years of investigation. The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari accepted the CBI’s closure report but said the case could be reopened if new evidence emerges.
The CBI had concluded its investigation in 2018 after repeated efforts to trace Ahmed failed. It later submitted its closure report to the trial court, having received the green light from the Delhi High Court.
Najeeb’s mother, Fatima Nafees, had opposed the closure of the case. Through her lawyer, she alleged that the CBI had bowed to political pressure and called the case politically motivated.
At the time of his disappearance, Ahmed was pursuing a master’s degree in Biotechnology and staying at the Mahi-Mandvi hostel on the JNU campus. He went missing the day after a reported altercation with some students said to be affiliated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). However, the hostel warden had confirmed seeing Ahmed leave the campus in an auto-rickshaw.
Initially, the case was handled by the Delhi Police but was later handed over to the CBI. During the hearings, the central agency informed the court that Ahmed had allegedly visited Safdarjung Hospital after the scuffle but had declined medical treatment. It also claimed that because no medical documents were prepared, it could not verify the statements of the doctor and medical staff at the time.
The investigating officer said Ahmed had been advised to get a medico-legal certificate (MLC) prepared but instead returned to the hostel with his friend, Mohammad Kasim, and did not follow through.
Earlier this month, Magistrate Maheshwari had stated that she would soon decide whether to accept the closure report in the case.
What Happened in 2016?
According to Fatima Nafees, her son returned to JNU on 13 October 2016 after the semester break. On the night of 15 October, he called her and said something wrong had happened. In her complaint to the police, she said Ahmed’s roommate, Kasim, told her that Najeeb had been involved in a fight and was hurt.
Fatima travelled from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi the next day to meet her son. She said she spoke to him on the phone and asked him to wait at his hostel. But when she arrived at Room 106 in Mahi-Mandvi hostel, Ahmed was not there. He has remained missing ever since.
