HC allows CBI to investigate missing JNU student’s case

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday transferred the investigation into the disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmad, missing since last October, to the CBI from the police with immediate effect.

A bench of Justices G S Sistani and Rekha Palli transferred the matter to the CBI on a plea by the student's mother after the Delhi Police said it has no problem with such a direction. The court said the probe by the CBI would be supervised by an officer, not less than the rank of a DIG.

While transferring the matter, the court noted that the Delhi Police had implemented all directions and suggestions given by the court. The matter will be taken up next on July 17.

The student had gone missing a day after an altercation with some ABVP students on the night of October 14, 2016. The RSS students' wing in JNU has denied any involvement in his disappearance.

The HC had on May 12 rapped the police over the manner of its probe into the disappearance of Ahmad, saying it appeared to be looking for an "escape route" and was "beating around the bush". The court had said the conduct of the police showed it was trying to sensationalise the matter or looking for a way out as it was filing reports in sealed covers and "there was nothing confidential, damaging or crucial" in them.

It was referring to the forensic analysis reports of the missing student's laptop and call records that the police had filed in a sealed cover but had initially not even shared with its own lawyer. The court had also lashed out at police saying it has been "beating around the bush and not in the bush" as it has been sending people across the country and setting up SITs but the nine students suspected to be behind Najeeb's disappearance were neither questioned, nor were they taken into custody.

The police has faced the wrath of the court several times earlier too in this case for the manner in which it has been carrying out the probe and not sharing some information with their own lawyers. Noting that the messages of the suspected students have not yet been examined, the court had said if the messages of the period when Najeeb went missing have been deleted, "then that in itself is incriminating".