CBI TELLS COURT IT WANTS TO CLOSE NAJEEB AHMED CASE

NEWDELHI: More than a year after taking over the investigation pertaining to the disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday informed the Delhi High Court that it was contemplating to file a closure report in the case.

The investigation agency, which was given charge of the probe on May 16, 2017, told the court that it has done more than just recording of statements but still has not been able to find Najeeb.

“At the ground level, we have been doing everything but there is no trace of Najeeb. We were also contemplating to file a closure report but then there are some more aspects which might be analysed and we would examine those,” Nikhil Goel, counsel for the CBI, said.

He also said that they had issued a yellow corner notice and also declared an award of Rs 10 lakh for anyone who could give any i nformation regarding Najeeb’s whereabouts. However, everybody has responded in “negative”.

“Till today we are taking feedbacks and the answer has been in negative,” he said, adding that they had also taken the help of “digital footprinting” of the nine suspects to monitor their movement but all in vain.

The court was hearing a habeus corpus plea — filed by Najeeb’s mother Fatima Nafees — seeking a court-monitored probe. Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves said the CBI had failed to conduct custodial interrogation of the nine suspects despite their names being identified by the warden, who had also protected Najeeb from being assaulted by a group of students.

He also submitted that subsequent to the disappearance, 18 students had submitted a written complaint to the chief proctor, JNU, the next day.