New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to formally close its investigation into the disappearance of Najeeb Ahmed, a first-year master's student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), who went missing on October 15, 2016.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari accepted the CBI’s closure report but granted the agency the liberty to reopen the case should any new evidence emerge in the future.
The CBI had submitted its closure report in October 2018, having found no trace of Ahmed despite extensive investigation. The report was filed in court after the agency received permission from the Delhi High Court to do so.
Ahmed vanished from JNU’s Mahi-Mandvi hostel following an altercation with a group of students allegedly affiliated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) the previous night.
Initially handled by Delhi Police, the case was later transferred to the CBI amid mounting public and legal pressure. Ahmed’s mother, Fatima Nafees, has consistently rejected the CBI’s findings. Her legal counsel had previously described the matter as a “political case,” alleging that the agency “succumbed to the pressure of its masters.”
Despite widespread protests and media attention over the years, the case remained unsolved, with no conclusive leads or suspects identified.
With PTI inputs