By Amit Kumar, TwoCircles.net
A student of Jawaharlal University, Najeeb Ahmad has reportedly gone missing since Saturday following a brawl with ABVP cadres in the campus during the campaigning for hostel elections.
A case under section 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) of IPC has been registered at the Vasant Kunj North police station on the basis of a complaint by his parents, police said.
Ahmed, a 27-year-old resident of Badayun, Uttar Pradesh, was in his room in the Mahi-Mandvi hostel when a few members of ABVP came for campaigning for the hostel elections.
However, it must be pointed out that the hostel elections are not fought on party lines.
A scuffle broke out between Ahmad and the students and the ABVP students beat up Ahmad, who had moved into the hostel only a few weeks ago. According to a student from the campus, while ABVP students allege that Ahmad ridiculed Vikrant, one of the campaigning students, over him wearing a Red thread in his hand, others said that the ABVP students abused the student for being a Muslim and called him names. About an hour later, the ABVP students returned with more people including outsiders and beat up Ahmed again, in front of the warden Dr Sushil Kumar.
Speaking with Twocircles.net, Dr Kumar said, “I was informed around 11pm on Friday night that a fight had broken out among the students in the hostel, and when I reached the spot I saw that some students, fearing the safety of Ahmad, had locked him up in the bathroom as a number of other students seemed hell bent on attacking him. I took Ahmad and as I was taking him with me to Warden office, he was attacked again by a number of students. Other students also got injured in the process. Finally when we reached the Warden office, Najeeb, visibly shaken, said he did not remember anything that had happened a while ago and refused to say much. He did apologise for his behaviour, and I made a report of the same and sent it to the administration.” Dr Kumar added that the next day, Ahmad’s roommate took him for a check up to Safdarjung Hospital and until 12 pm, Ahmad was in campus. “Another warden, Dr Anil Srivastav, said he had probably seen Ahmad leave in an auto or a taxi, alone. However, he is not sure. That was the last time he was spotted on campus,” Dr Kumar said.
According to Alimuddin, President, Mahi Mandvi hostel, the matter was considered closed that night. “By the fag end of Friday night, we were under the impression that the matter had been solved. However, next day around evening we came to know that Najeeb had gone missing. In the last two days, there is a massive amount of political games that have been played on the issue and many are addressing it as a Hindu-Muslim fight. However, I would like to point that this is not the time for such games…a student has gone missing, and we must focus only on that issue for the time being,” he said.
Will approach court if matter is not solved, say Ahmad’s parents
Speaking with media persons, the father of Ahmad said, “It is a matter of shame that my son was accused by the Dean of Students’ Welfare even before they identified the perpetrators. In front of the warden, those students threatened to kill my son.” His mother added, “I spoke to my son on Saturday morning around 11 am from Anand Vihar. I told him to stay there, and that I was coming to meet him in his room. However, when I came back he had gone missing,” she added. The parents, who have been in the campus for the last three days, said that unless he is found in the next two days they would approach the court.
The accused, some of whom were identified, have been called for interrogation by the Vasant Kunj Police. Twocircles.net tried to get in touch with one of the accused, Vikrant, but his number was switched off. Meanwhile, the JNUSU has been protesting outside the administration office in the campus and said that as of now, all focus must be on finding Najeeb, followed by ensuring that the right action must be taken against students who attacked him. “(On) 16/10/2016 (in) the warden’s’ meeting, to prepare a report about the incident was repeatedly disturbed by ABVP lumpens led by Saurabh Sharma. There are serious efforts to communalize the issue and concerted efforts to communally polarize the campus where, on the table of the common room “Muslims are Terrorists” and other deeply offensive statements were written in the hostel. It is shocking to see the apathy of the administration which has not taken any concrete steps despite Najeeb Ahmed missing from the campus premises for more than three days now,” JNUSU said in a release.
The JNUSU demanded that all the accused must be punished strictly and that the administration must file a formal complaint with the Delhi Police immediately. “All the accused have to be declared out of bound from the hostel to ensure a free and fair trial and speedy justice to be delivered without intimidation of the witnesses. The administration has to initiate further steps to ensure the safety of the students and take necessary steps to stop communal polarization of stakeholders of the university,” the release added.