New Delhi: Where has he vanished? This question is playing hard on the minds of all those who have been following the disappearance of 27-year-old Najeeb Ahmed, a JNU student aspiring for a Masters degree in Science, from his hostel on the night intervening October 14-15. Seven months down the line their is no trace of him and the investigating agencies are still groping in the dark about his whereabouts.
The concern for Najeeb’s well-being resonated in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday. Not satisfied with the investigations of Delhi Police in the matter, the court has now transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Division bench of justices comprising Justice G.S. Sistani and Justice Rekha Palli transferred the case with immediate effect.
Next hearing in the matter is on July 17.
The major blow to the Delhi Police comes after the High Court had repeatedly rebuked the former over the exceedingly slow progress in the matter, which was peppered with several loopholes.
Earlier on May 3, a sessions court quashed a lower court order that directed nine JNU students to appear before it to record their consent or refusal for a lie-detector test in connection with the case.
Additional Sessions Judge Siddharth Sharma dismissed a magisterial court’s order dated March 30 and rejected the notice of Delhi Police.
The Sessions court also granted liberty to issue fresh notice related to lie detector test of the students as per guidelines.
Patiala House Court Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass had earlier asked the students to appear before the court.
The Delhi Police had issued a notice to the students and asked them to appear before it for a lie-detector test.
After receiving the summons, the students had opposed the police’s move.
Earlier in February, the Delhi Police was pulled up by the Delhi High Court over their slow progress in the case and was asked to explore other prospects of probe like polygraph test of other persons connected with the disappearance of Ahmed as all other leads in this case have not yielded any good result.
“The student had gone missing in October 2016; it is February now. Nearly four months have gone by and none of the leads are going anywhere. We asked for a polygraph test as the other leads have not yielded any results,” the court observed.
The High Court was hearing an application by one of the nine students, who are suspects in the case, seeking recall of the High Court’s order dated December 14 and December 22, 2016.
The application had alleged that by means of these two orders, the court was regulating the manner of investigation, which was prejudicing the probe and violating their rights under Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution.
The applicant had also challenged a notice issued to him by the Delhi Police to appear before the trial court to give consent for a lie-detector test.
The Delhi Government’s counsel opposed the application, stating that the same student had moved a similar plea through another lawyer earlier and the High Court on January 23 disposed it off by asking the student to come forward.
Police stations register a number of missing person cases in Indian metros each day, but the fact that Najeeb Ahmed allegedly had a fight with members of Ahil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parisad, the student body of the right wing RSS, just before his disapperance has place his case under intense scrutiny. His disapperance comes against the backdrop of growing concern regarding the alleged militant attitude adopted by right wing organizations to stamp their authority over education campuses across the country since the BJP took over reigns of power at the Center three years back.
(With inputs from Agencies)