More than three months after Najeeb Ahmed went missing from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus and with the police still awaiting any credible leads in the case, a man was arrested for making a bogus ransom call to the student’s relatives.
The accused, who had demanded Rs. 20 lakh as ransom to release Ahmed, is a resident of Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh and is being brought to Delhi on transit remand by a Crime Branch team.
“We do not have his name at the moment since he is attempting to conceal his identity by giving different names and particulars every time he is questioned,” said a senior Crime Branch official. The accused was expected to reach the Capital by Sunday evening, the official said.
Mr. Ahmed went missing after an altercation on the campus with members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The police launched a manhunt following massive protests by JNU students.
The 27-year-old left the campus on October 15 in an autorickshaw and there has been no news of him ever since. The police had then claimed that the autorickshaw took him to Jamia Milia Islamia University.
