It has been two years and the HC order for closure has come as a shock to many. Nafees accused the CBI of colluding with the BJP government and not doing enough to trace her son or investigate and punish the people who assaulted him after which he disappeared.
New Delhi: With no signs or hope for her son’s return, Fatima Nafees is dejected. Not only has her son been missing for two years from JNU, the Delhi HC allowed CBI to file a closure report of the case she had filed against RSS affiliated ABVP students. The 34 page judgement that may read here however allows her the legal option of challenging the closure report through filing a protest petition in the trial court. Were that to happen, in law, Fatima Nafees is entitled to the entire set of the investigation papers.
Najeeb Ahmed had gone missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi on October 15, 2016, following a scuffle with some students allegedly affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) the previous night.
His mother, Nafees, had moved the high court after a month and sought the polices help in finding him. She had requested a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe which was rejected. Her counsel, Colin Gonsalves, had also asked at various points during the hearings, that the High Court seek the assistance of technical experts to ensure that the reports being filed by the CBI in fact, followed established procedure.
It has been two years and the HC order for closure has come as a shock to many. Nafees accused the CBI of colluding with the BJP government and not doing enough to trace her son or investigate and punish the people who assaulted him after which he disappeared.
“Najeeb’s assaulters, who are all ABVP members, have been represented at various points by the most expensive and high-profile lawyers. Our case against the media groups and ABVP members for defaming my son, filed at the Patiala [House] Courts went missing from the court premises,” alleged Nafees speaking to Sabrangindia. Counsel for Nafees also argued that there no interrorgation, leave alone custodial interrogation was ever conducted of these ABVP members who are today extremely powerful, politically.
“The way CBI was probing the case; its closure report will hardly have any effect on us. They were already not doing anything. More than one year has passed since the case was handed to CBI, it has not gone a single step forward. We are in 2018 where we were in 2016. They did nothing for us. Whatever they did they did only to save nine criminals of ABVP, to destroy evidence and to intimidate witnesses,” Fatima alleged.
Counselfor Nafees had earlier said nine students were named in a complaint filed by 18 students, who were eyewitnesses to the alleged assault on Ahmed, yet they were not interrogated. The nine students named in the complaint have denied all the allegations against them.
She wanted the CBI chief to resign for showing incompetence in finding her son. She added that she was misguided by the police when she went to file a complaint. “The policemen at Vasant Kunj station told me not to write the names of the attackers because if I did that, there would be no guarantee of his return, but if I filed a missing report, he will be back in 24 hours,” she said in a report by Times of India.
“The way he was beaten and disappeared, they want to tell that poor will not be allowed to study but they are wrong. Like after killing of one Rohit Vemula, 1000 Rohit Vemulas were born. Similarly, in place of one Najeeb, now one lakh Najeeb’s would come to study at JNU and they won’t be able to stop them. I am asking people to send more and more children to JNU to study because we will no more live like labourers. Our children will ask the government about their rights. Like a mother is seeking her rights, her children will seek their rights,” she further said in the report.
She will be moving the appropriate court to challenge the closure report.
“The investigation, in this case, has shown the blatant political interference at the highest levels and the extent to which institutions such as the Delhi Police and the CBI has been severely compromised under the Modi Government. Despite repeated appeals and protests and strongest arguments made in the court, both the CBI and the Delhi Police has stubbornly refused to investigate into the assault against Najeeb the night before he disappeared. Najeeb’s assaulters who are all ABVP members have been represented at various points by the most expensive and high-profile lawyers,” JNUSU said in a press statement.
JNUSU president N. Sai Balaji said in a report by The Hindu, “While we are deeply dejected with the verdict of the High Court, we are determined to carry this struggle forward. The CBI and the Delhi Police have become puppets under the Modi regime and it has been apparent in the way in which the investigation over the last two years has been severely compromised.”
