Court stays order in JNU missing student's case

NEW DELHI: A sessions court here on Thursday stayed a lower court order that directed nine JNU students to appear before it to record their consent or refusal for a lie-detector test in case of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Siddharth Sharma stayed a magisterial court's order dated March 30 and fixed May 3 for further hearing in the matter. After the stay by the sessions court, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass adjourned the matter pending in his court for May 4.

On March 30, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate had ordered the nine Jawaharlal Nehry University students to appear before it on April 6 "without fail". The court was hearing a Delhi Police plea for recording consent/refusal of these nine students for polygraphy.

As per the National Human Rights Commission, the liedetector test is not authorised by law and must be regarded as illegal unless it is voluntarily accepted, the students' lawyer said. On December 22, the Delhi High Court had directed police to conduct the tests on these JNU students regarding Najeeb Ahmed, who went missing in October 2016.

The Crime Branch told the court that the nine students had failed to join the investigation.

Ahmed, 27, an M.SC. First Year student, allegedly went missing after a row with members of the RSS student wing ABVP, which denied involvement.