Auto driver gave statement before magistrate, say police

NEWDELHI:A day after the CBI told a court that an auto driver who claimed to have dropped JNU student Najeeb Ahmed at Jamia Nagar turned hostile and said he was under duress, Delhi police sources said his statement was recorded in court too.

The driver appeared before two judges on November 16 and 17, the sources said.

Before the high court transferred Ahmed’s case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the crime branch was probing the case. Ahmed, who had gone missing from the JNU campus on October 15 last year, is yet to be traced.

Crime branch sources said they were unaware why the driver retracted because he had given a statement in front of a metropolitan magistrate(MM) on November 17, last year.

The judge reportedly asked the auto driver if he was giving his statement under duress, which he denied then.

A statement before the court is admissible evidence in a trial.

A day before he appeared in front of the MM, the police had produced him before a chief metropolitan magistrate where he offered to give his statement. The CMM then referred him to another court.

Sources said the auto driver, originally from Jharkhand, was traced from the entry register of the campus. A JNU professor, whose statement is also part of court records, had told the police that he saw Ahmed leaving the campus in an auto-rickshaw. It was then the crime branch checked the register at the gate and found him.

“We have submitted the register mentioning the details of his auto rickshaw while he came to the campus that morning to drop someone. Apart from that, we also traced the location of his cell phone, which confirmed he had left JNU and reached Jamia Nagar that day. This is now a part of court record,” said an officer.

Delhi police and CBI announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh each for information on Ahmed’s whereabouts.

The CBI had on Tuesday informed the Delhi High court in its status report that the auto driver was changing his statement. Though the report was submitted in a sealed cover, some of its details were reported on Tuesday. CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal had refused to comment on the case. Dayal said the matter was subjudice and the status report has been submitted to the court in a sealed cover.