On April 23, a Delhi court ruled that Fatima Nafis is not only entitled to file a protest petition against the closure report in the investigation into her son Najeeb’s disappearance, but also to copies of the report, all related documents as well as statements of witnesses.

The court directed the CBI to submit all this to the complainant in two weeks. Additionally the investigating officer has been directed to be present at the next hearing.

The order passed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate said, “The law is settled that in case of closure/cancellation report, complainant is to be given opportunity to file protest petition, if so desired by the complainant.”

The order also stated, “Further, there cannot be a half-hearted approach. In fact an effective opportunity be given to the complainant to file protest petition. As such, whole of the cancellation report along with the statement of witnesses and documents which are part and parcel of the present cancellation report, have to be supplied to the complainant side.”

The court had allowed the CBI to provide soft copies of the documents on a pen drive or CD. The entire order may be read here.

In passing the order the court had  relied on the Supreme Court’s observations in the Jakia Nasim Ahesan vs State of Gujarat. In that order the SC said, “that if for any stated reason the SIT opines in its report, to be submitted in terms of this order, that there is no sufficient evidence or reasonable grounds for proceeding against any person named in the complaint, dated 8th June 2006, before taking a final decision on such ‘closure’ report, the Court shall issue notice to the complainant and make available to her copies of the statements of the witnesses, other related documents and the investigation report strictly in accordance with law as enunciated by this Court in Bhagwant Singh Vs. Commissioner of Police& Anr.2. For the sake of ready reference, we may note that in the said decision, it has been held that in a case where the Magistrate to whom a report is forwarded under Section 173(2)(i) of the Code, decides not to take cognizance of the offence and to drop the proceedings or takes a view that there is no sufficient ground for proceeding against some of the persons mentioned in the FIR, the Magistrate must give notice to the informant and provide him an opportunity to be heard at the time of consideration of the report.”
 
Brief background of the case
Najeeb Ahmed, a first year MSc Biotechnology student in the JNU went missing on October 15, 2016 after the alleged attacks on him by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the ruling party. This had sparked students’ movements across the country. His mother Fatima Nafees has been tirelessly following up his case. On multiple occasions she has faced extreme police brutality despite peacefully demanding for her son to be found.

His case was initially investigated by the Vasant Kunj Police, and was subsequently passed on to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Delhi Police, the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police and then the CBI. But all these institutions failed to find his traces.

Activists pursuing his case along with Fatima Nafees have raised the questions, “How is it that in the case of a person’s disappearance, a premier investigating agency does not consider his phone records as important and relevant? How can the CBI deny such a crucial evidence to Fatima Nafees to challenge their closure report?”

They alleged, “The CBI is trying by all possible means to ensure that the truth behind Najeeb’s disappearance is never known! It’s been more than eight months, and Fatima Nafees does not have all the documents to file her protest petition. Now with the denial of Najeeb’s CDR, the needle of suspicion continues to point towards the CBI!”

Related:
Radhika Vemula: I will not rest until Rohith gets Justice
Have you seen my son: Rupa Behn Mody

The post CDR not relevant to the investigation: CBI denies documents to missing scholar’s mother Fatima Nafees despite Delhi Court order appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On April 23, a Delhi court ruled that Fatima Nafis is not only entitled to file a protest petition against the closure report in the investigation into her son Najeeb’s disappearance, but also to copies of the report, all related documents as well as statements of witnesses.

The court has directed the CBI to submit all this to the complainant in two weeks. Additionally the investigating officer has been directed to be present at the next hearing.

CJP stands in solidarity with Indian mothers demanding justice for their children. We salute the courage of Fatima Nafees, Radhika Vemula, Rupa Behn Modi and Asiya Begum.

The order passed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate says, “The law is settled that in case of closure/cancellation report, complainant is to be given opportunity to file protest petition, if so desired by the complainant.”

The order also states, “Further, there cannot be a half-hearted approach. In fact an effective opportunity be given to the complainant to file protest petition. As such, whole of the cancellation report along with the statement of witnesses and documents which are part and parcel of the present cancellation report, have to be supplied to the complainant side.”

The court has allowed the CBI to provide soft copies of the documents on a pen drive or CD. The entire order may be read here.

In passing the order the court relied on the Supreme Court’s observations in the Jakia Nasim Ahesan vs State of Gujarat. In that order the SC said, “that if for any stated reason the SIT opines in its report, to be submitted in terms of this order, that there is no sufficient evidence or reasonable grounds for proceeding against any person named in the complaint, dated 8th June 2006, before taking a final decision on such ‘closure’ report, the Court shall issue notice to the complainant and make available to her copies of the statements of the witnesses, other related documents and the investigation report strictly in accordance with law as enunciated by this Court in Bhagwant Singh Vs. Commissioner of Police & Anr.2. For the sake of ready reference, we may note that in the said decision, it has been held that in a case where the Magistrate to whom a report is forwarded under Section 173(2)(i) of the Code, decides not to take cognizance of the offence and to drop the proceedings or takes a view that there is no sufficient ground for proceeding against some of the persons mentioned in the FIR, the Magistrate must give notice to the informant and provide him an opportunity to be heard at the time of consideration of the report.”
 

Brief background of the case

Najeeb was a pursuing a Master’s Degree in Biotechnology from New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was a sharp young man with what his mother hoped was a bright future. But one evening he ended up in a brawl with members of a student union affiliated with a prominent political party with an extreme right wing ideology. The very next day he went missing.

Najeeb’s friends suspected foul play and Fatima started demanding an explanation about what happened to her son. But nobody seemed to have any answers. The police couldn’t explain what happened. It was almost as if he vanished into thin air!

The case was then handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Related:

Radhika Vemula: I will not rest until Rohith gets Justice
Have you seen my son: Rupa Behn Mody
 

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The brazen and brutal violence unleashed on our sons has rid us of any fear, dared Shahira and Fatima Nafees mothers of two sons, one dead and the other missing, both victims of the hate-letting unleashed under the current regime. Speaking at a meeting at Haj House in Mumbai on Saturday, both women dared the prime minister with his claim of a 56-inch chest! Why does he not have the moral courage to look us in the eye, meet our demands. ensure that the guilty are brought to book, they demanded?

Nafees’ son , 27 year old Najeeb has been missing since October 2016 after an alleged assault by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) at the Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) in Delhi. JNU is a university under attack for its radical and liberal values by the Modi regime since Feburary 2016. The ABVP is a wing of the far right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological fountainhead of the NDA II regime. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) finally closed the case in October 2018. Nafees is planning to challenge the closure in a protest petition soon. It is believed that top level functionaries of the Modi have been protecting the nine accused in the case. These nine have not ven been questioned by the CBI. The CBI itself is under a cloud after brazen interference in its functioning by the prime minister’s office (PMO).

“I dare the primine minister to meet us, look me in the eye and say no wrong was done to my son. This regime that is fuelled on hate and violence will not come back to power. The 56 inch chest will deflate,” Fatima said. Hailing from Badaun in Uttar Pradesh, Fatima spoke of the hardships involved in the struggle for justice, the delays, the callous attitudes of the law enforcement agencies amd even the courts.

Junaid, a 16 year old from Faridabad was literally beaten or lynched to death in June 2017 when on a Delhi Mathura train returning home with his two brothers after Eid shopping. While Junaid tragically died his brothers were seriously injured in the assault that was clearly communal, with vile abuse being flung at the boys and their beards being pulled. Junaid’s tragic death had resulted in a nationwide outrage of anger and protest. Sabrangindia had been the most prompt to report on this tragic death after the CPIM in a rare and prompt move had moved on the issue.   The #NotInMyName Protests after Junaid’s killing had showed some resistance to the repeated violence against minorities that has been a hallmark of this regime.

The dimunitive Shahira, mother of Junaid who also spoke in Mumbai yesterday was scathing of the state of affairs related to the case in her son’s mother. ” The FIR itself has not included the crucial sections of section 302 and 307 (murder and attempt to murder), she said. Six of the accused have been let off by the courts on bail. There is talk of the main accused standing for the coming elections. We need to speak out. There should be no question of feeling afraid. My son’s death has killed the fear in me,” she said.

A Noida based businessman, Amit Jani has floated an outfit called the Uttar Pradesh Navnirmal Sena and has announced that Naresh Kumar, the main accused in the killing of Junaid will contest the elections. He has also reportedly stated that all those accused of killing Muslims should fight the elections.

Both Shahira and Fatima stressed the need of educating Muslim, Dalit and Bahujan youth so that young persons make it to top positions and ensure both representation and justice for the marginalised. “I was not educated and my husband is a carpenter. But apart from Najeeb my other sons too are post graduates and my daughter, too is studying,” she said.

Fahad Ahmad from TISS also spoke on the occasion. Teesta Setalvad, co editor of Sabrangindia and secretary, Citizens for Justice and Peace, spoke of the emergent opposition to this repressive regime. ” It is the youth like Rohith Vemula, Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumat and survivors like Shahira and Fatima Nafees who have emerged as the strong voice of resistance and opposition to this regime,” she said.

Related Articles:

1. How India Unleashes Violence Against Mothers The unending struggles of Fatima Nafees and Radhika Vemula

The post Modi Regime has Rid us of Fear: Mothers Shahira & Fatima Nafees dare Govt appeared first on SabrangIndia.

#JusticeForNajeeb

Protest at Jantar Mantar, Where is Najeeb? October 15, 2018, Two Years After his Disappearance

Monday October 15, was a sombre day in New Delhi as three mothers got  together to demand justice for their sons. While Fatima Nafees was demanding answers about the whereabouts of her son who went missing exactly two years ago from his hostel room in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Radhika Vemula and Shahira knew for a fact that their sons would never come back to them. 
 
Radhika’s son Rohith was a PhD student at the University of Hyderabad and committed suicide in January 2016, an action called ‘institutional murder’ by the burgeoning student movement that emerged after his death. Rohith was a student activist and a member of the Ambedkar Student’s Association. Following his vocal outpouring at a protest against the hanging of Yakub Memon, prime accused in the 1993 bomb blast case, members of a right wing student’s association labeled him as ‘anti-national’. In fact, members of the same group also allegedly physically assaulted him so badly that he required surgery.
 
Rohith was also suspended and barred from the hostel. The University also reportedly stopped paying his monthly fellowship. For 13 days before he took this step, the students barred from their hostel rooms were sleeping within the University premises in a makeshift Dalit Veliwada (the segregated space for Dalits in Indian villages). Rohith’s suicide was his last recourse after suffering months of bullying, harassment, physical violence and mental torture at the hands of University authorities as well as the said student’s union. A month before he died an eloquent letter to the VC sarcastically said that every Dalit student should be given a bottle of poison and a hangman’s noose when he or she is admitted. This document is a scathing indictment of the racial, caste bias that is still a reality of Indian campus life, 70 years after Independence.
 
Meanwhile, Shahira’s son Junaid was murdered in full public view because of a dispute about train seats. He was just 16, and was on his way back from a shopping trip for Eid. While there were many witnesses, and the prime accused Naresh had even confessed, the case appears to be in limbo with all accused being granted bail in the case. Shahira was seen addressing the protesters at Jantar Mantar.
 
On Monday, nearly 500 people including students, activists and civil society members joined the mothers in Delhi demanding justice for Najeeb, Rohith and Junaid. They marched from Mandi House to Parliament Street. 

Grief and Loss, Najeeb’s Parents

Support Through protestors

Fatima Nafees, Najeeb’s Mother

Mother of Junaid, lynched in 2017 (June) speaks at the protest against two years of                    
Najeeb’s Disappearance

Protestor

JNUTA STATEMENT IN SOLIDARITY WITH MOTHER OF NAJEEB AHMAD

Two years have passed since the disappearance of Najeeb Ahmad from JNU camps. He was last seen on 15 October 2016 after he had been assaulted the previous night in the Mahi-Mandvi hostel. In these two years the investigative agencies have failed to find a single clue as to his whereabouts and CBI has now moved to file a closure report on its investigation.

As Najeeb’s mother Fatima Nafees lurches between hope and grief, she has also found the strength and energy to lend support to the struggles of the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Junaid Khan. JNUTA salutes her spirit and we note with dismay that the central and state governments, and university administrations, who ought to have acted more efficiently and empathetically to ensure the young persons’ security and well-being have failed to respond to concerns of the mothers.

In Najeeb’s case, instead of taking responsibility JNU administration has adopted a callous approach, resulting in the failure to pin responsibility for the fateful events of 14th and 15th October 2016. JNUTA condemns the cold treatment meted out to Najeeb’s mother by Vice-Chancellor, and would like to remind him of care that is expected of him in his role as the guardian of students on campus. The disappearance of a student from the campus will remain a grim reminder of the many dark failures of the current JNU administration and its devastating treatment of the university students and teachers.

JNUTA expresses concern for Fatima Nafees’s health and deep dismay over the lackadaisical and facile efforts of the university administration to find Najeeb. We demand a conscientious response from the competent authority that they write to the Ministry of Home Affairs to urgently institute a credible investigation to ascertain Najeeb Ahmad’s whereabouts and to ensure that justice is served.

Sonajharia Minz, President, Sudhir K Suthar, Secretary

The post Tale of Three Mothers: Fatima, Radhika and Shahira demand justice for Najeeb, Rohith, Junaid appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Representational picture. Image credit: The Indian Express

Talking to SabrangIndia, Pandey slammed the police for not being efficient in investigating Najeeb’s disappearance and accused police and the university administration of protecting Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). “We see a possibility of a nexus between ABVP and the police here. Both of them are making the same allegations. When the police detained the protesters yesterday from India Gate area, they kept alleging that it's us, who have hidden Najeeb somewhere – exactly what ABVP has been claiming. Both of them claim that he’s still on campus. Police is simply buying into their propaganda and is harassing us. On the investigation front, there is no progress. Police is clearly ignoring its primary responsibility,” claimed Pandey.

He told SabrangIndia, “The ABVP guys with whom Najeeb had had a fight with a day before he went missing, are still roaming free. After our repeated questions and attempts, two of these guys were just interrogated. No action has been taken against them by the university administration,” he said.

Pandey was detained on Sunday along with Najeeb Ahmad’s mother, relatives and several other students from the university by Delhi Police for trying to organise a protest near India Gate. Students and Najeeb’s family were picked up before they could begin the protest and were taken to different police stations. In the process of detaining, Najeeb’s mother Fatima Nafees was dragged from the spot outside the National Archives of India.

Image credit: Topyaps.com Najeeb's mother Fatima Nafees was dragged by Delhi Police on Sunday.

Image credit: India Today Earlier this year, Radhika Vemula was dragged by police in a similar incident.

The images and videos of the incident went viral on social media, which resembled the incident in which Radhika Vemula – mother of a research scholar from Hyderabad Central University Rohith Vemula, was similarly dragged by Delhi Police earlier this year. Rohith had committed suicide on January 17 in his hostel room inside Hyderbad Central University.

JNU students led by JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU), and Najeeb’s family members have been protesting in the capital as even after 23 days, police have failed in locating Najeeb or in taking strong action against the ABVP perpetrators.

Pandey informed SabrangIndia, “They detained us at round 3.30 pm, and took us all to the different police stations. Najeeb’s mother was taken to Mayapuri police station, his sister was taken to Mandir Marg (police station) and students were taken to South Avenue police station. We were let go at around 8.30 pm.”

Pandey claimed that the police manhandled Nafees and were also beating up the students. “They were beating us up, and kept shouting at us. They said things like: you want justice? Here’s your justice, and kept hitting the students,” he claimed.

While the police have claimed that they had requested JNUSU in writing not to go near India Gate citing Section 144 CrPC is in force, Pandey said that they had replied to the written notice by the police. “We had informed them that we do not agree with the reasons you have cited and that we’re going ahead with the protest,” he said.

Even after 24 days since his disappearance, police and the SIT have not been able to trace Najeeb, who went missing from the university hostel after a brawl with ABVP students on October 14. His mother Nafees has since been in Delhi and has been demanding speedy investigation of the case. JNUSU is going to keep protesting, said Pandey. “We’re also planning to meet the president. We’ll urge him to look into the matter and speed up the investigation,” said Pandey.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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She was at a rally peacefully protesting with several others about the mysterious disappearance of her son. They were demanding that the police and the central government need to do much more to trace Najeeb.

The rally was disbanded by the police. There is enough of evidence (viral on social media) to show how Fatima was dragged, manhandled and detained by the police. Several other protestors (including students) were also detained.

This is not the first incident happening this past week. Some opposition political leaders who were protesting the death of a retired soldier were also arrested and were made to stop their protests. The son of the soldier who had gone to meet these leaders was beaten up by the police.

The popular TV channel NDTV India, will be taken off the air on November 9 for 24 hours because of the inconvenient questions they asked and their coverage of the Pathankot terror attack that took place on January 2 this year. Another channel from Assam has been given the same treatment. For several months now, there has been a virtual black-out on the media (mainly electronic and social) from Kashmir.

The BJP, the main ruling party, has gone to town about the “surgical strikes” on Pakistan. This is rather unfortunate. Anyone questioning the veracity of these ‘surgical strikes’ or asking for more information is termed ‘anti-national’ or ‘unpatriotic’. Pakistan certainly does not have a favourable track record either on human rights or on the freedom of its citizens. However, there are well-meaning citizens in both countries who would like the avenues of dialogue to be kept open and to continue Indo-Pak bonding on meaningful fronts. This is also frowned upon.

India has upped its military spending. Precious foreign reserves are squandered on what is conveniently referred to as ‘upgrading’ the military. Countries who need to sell from their stockpiles, find India an easy customer. The budgets for essentials like education, health, agriculture, employment generation, poverty alleviation programmes have been drastically cut. This does not augur well for ‘development’ meant to be inclusive and holistic.

Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) are pushed to the wall. Organisations which take a stand for truth and justice and for the Constitutional rights of the oppressed are denied the possibility of receiving foreign aid. Right-wing fascists with full support from the ruling class, lynch you or beat you because of what you believe in, eat, dress, write, see etc. Crony capitalism is on the rise.

It has never been so bad in India! Opposition, students and liberal media are suppressed; Rights and Freedoms are curtailed; dissent is quashed! Today it is not merely the writing on the wall: the dismantling of democracy has begun!

(Fr Cedric Prakash sj is a human rights activist. He is currently based in Lebanon, engaged with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in the Middle East on advocacy and communications. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com)         
 

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