By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
More than a year after the mysterious disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmad, Central Bureau of Investigation, Delhi filed its status report in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, but was unable to convince the Supreme Court about the case’s progress.
Submitted in a sealed envelop, the status report also sought some time to complete the investigation, according to sources. The court agreed on the demand and granted CBI the time until December 21, on which the court shall hear the matter again.
High Court bench of Justice S Muralidhar and IS Mehta has been hearing a habeas corpus filed by Fatima Nafees, mother of Najeeb Ahmad.
One important point which emerged out of the status report is that CBI said that the police’s theory of an auto driver driving Najeeb Ahmad out of the JNU on October 15, 2016, was formulated after police put a pressure on auto driver to make a statement.
In its status report, CBI stated that it has submitted call records of all the accused in the case to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh for analysis and it is waiting for the analysis results.
Moreover, the CBI lawyer could not answer the defense counsel’s query that why the CBI did not accused in for custodial interrogation. However, CBI’s counsel stressed that CBI is under pressure and the nature of the case is sensitive.
On last hearing of the case on October 16, the court said that CBI has been showing “complete lack of interest” in investigating the case.
Najeeb Ahmad is a M.Sc. Biotechnology student of JNU who disappeared on October 14, 2016. What made his disappearance strange that before his disappearance, he was last seen in a scuffle with the students belonging to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
The Delhi High Court had transferred the case to CBI in May 2017, when the Police and SIT – which was constituted by the order of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh – could not do make much progress in the case.