By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
As the mysterious disappearance of Najeeb Ahmad, a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University crosses a year, the Delhi High Court today lashed at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for not taking the matter seriously.
The Court said that “there was complete lack on interest” commenting on CBI’s progress over the case.
The Court also showed dissatisfaction over the fact that no CBI official has recorded its presence in the court in the same case. The Court ordered the presence of DIG in every hearing from now on.
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).
On the occasion of Najeeb’s one year of disappearance, JNU students along with the family members of Najeeb sat on Dharna outside CBI headquarters in Delhi on October 13, which lasted for about 30 hours.
While hearing the habeas corpus filed by Najeeb’s mother Fatima Nafees, the bench comprising of Justice GS Sistani and Justice Chandrashekhar told CBI, “In a case that is being followed by all the fact that there was nothing in the status report shows the lack of seriousness of the case.”
“Higher officials are not even reading the status report, which is signed by the inspector,” said the Court.
Court made such remarks after it noticed the substantial difference between the CBI’s submission and its status report. CBI’s counsel claimed that they have analysed the call records of the accused. But there was nothing regarding the same in the status report.
Advocate Kamini Jaiswal, representing Najeeb’s mother, told the court that the agency has overlooked two important aspects – the call details of the nine accused, along with their location on that day and the examination of WhatsApp records of those people.
The court ordered that the CBI must not only analyse the call records but also submit the location details and WhatsApp messages of the accused individually, and in their groups.
“If the CBI has already analysed the call records and they have found nothing in them, then what stops them from saying so in the status report,” asked Justice Sistani.
To conduct the polygraph test of the accused, the court has ordered CBI to move another application today itself. The order was given as the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) adjourned previous application of CBI January 24, 2018. The court said that such a long date would “defeat the objective of polygraph test”.
The court also ordered the family of Najeeb to go through polygraph, to which Najeeb’s family should no objection.
The 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 much progress in the case.
While this report was being written, Delhi Police has detained Najeeb’s mother Fatima Nafees and several other activists from High Court premises. More details on the arrest are awaiting.