Students protesting against the Jawaharlal Nehru University administration’s "lack of initiative and effort" towards finding student Najeeb Ahmad, confined Vice Chancellor M. Jagdeesh Kumar and other top university officials to their offices all from Wednesday afternoon till the early hours of Thursday. The VC was allowed to leave later in the day.
Najeeb has been missing since 11 a.m. on October 15 after an altercation with students belonging to the ABVP at the Mahi-Mandavi Hostel.
The students blocked the entry and exit points of the administration block at 2 30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Mr. Kumar, in a series of tweets, said that despite asking the students come to the table for discussion, they did not relent. “We met JNUSU leaders and explained to them our sincere efforts in locating the missing student. No relenting. It is 2 a.m. We are still confined.”
Students are demanding that the administration file a fresh FIR
JNUSU president Mohit Pandey said that all negotiations with the administration had failed. “We are still at the block because we simply want the answers from the VC which he has not given us for six days.”
Students are demanding that a written complaint be filed with the police about the missing student and that all those who took part in the alleged violence declared out-of-bounds from the hostel until a fair enquiry is conducted.
The administration had said that when they went to file an FIR on October 15, they were told that Najeeb’s family had filed an FIR and another one cannot be filed in the same case. Rector Chintamani Mahapatra said on Wednesday that they were in constant touch with the police to find the student and there was not much they could do as nobody knew of his whereabouts.
As to the allegation of violence at Mahi-Mandavi Hostel, he said that a Proctoral Committee was set up to conduct a fail enquiry and hear all versions of the story. The administration met with Najeeb’s family only four days after he went missing despite his mother having spent every hour outside the Administration Block requesting help to find her son.
