The Delhi High Court on Tuesday transferred the investigation into the disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, missing since last October, from the police to the CBI.
A Bench of Justices G. S. Sistani and Rekha Palli transferred the matter to the CBI on a plea by the student’s mother, Fatima Nafees, after the Delhi Police said it had no problem with such a direction.
The court said the probe by the CBI would be supervised by an officer, not less than the rank of a DIG. The matter will be taken up next on July 17.
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Allegations dismissed
The High Court, however, disagreed with the allegations of the student’s family that the investigation in the case was “politically motivated” and lacked “integrity”.
The student had gone missing a day after an altercation with some ABVP students on the night of October 14, 2016. The RSS students’ wing in JNU has denied any involvement in his disappearance.
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The High Court had on May 12 rapped the police over the manner of its probe into the disappearance of Najeeb, saying it appeared to be looking for an “escape route”.
The court had said the conduct of the police showed it was trying to sensationalise the matter or looking for a way out as it was filing reports in sealed covers and “there was nothing confidential, damaging or crucial” in them.
It was referring to the forensic analysis reports of the missing student’s laptop and call records that the police had filed in a sealed cover but had initially not even shared with their own lawyer.
The court had also lashed out at the police saying it had been “beating around the bush and not in the bush” as it had been sending people across the country and setting up special investigation teams (SITs), but the nine students suspected to be behind Najeeb’s disappearance were neither questioned, nor taken into custody.
‘Messages not examined’
Noting that the messages of the suspected students had not yet been examined, the court had said if the messages of the period when Najeeb went missing had been deleted, “then that in itself is incriminating”.
The court had said, “If today it is Najeeb, tomorrow it could be anybody, just because he belongs to some other community or a political body”.
Responding to the court’s observations, DCP Ram Gopal Naik, who headed the SIT, had told the court how he went about investigating the case and what aspects and angles, including that of Najeeb’s medical condition, were considered by him.