Najeeb Ahmad’s mother with members of SDPI stages a protest to demand justice for her son

It is over two years since Najeeb Ahmad, a PhD student at JNU, disappeared from the campus. The night before, he was allegedly brutally assaulted by a mob of students claiming allegiance to the Vidyarthi Parishad. It is also alleged that he spoke derisively against Hindu religion which infuriated a section of students. As news of his disappearance spread, his family members and students of the university protested against the insensitive handling of the affair by the JNU administration. They also blamed the Delhi police for being lackadaisical in their efforts to trace the whereabouts of Najeeb and their failure to even question students who were part of the mob which had assaulted Najeeb. From the very beginning, the police and the JNU administration has tried to sell the whole episode as a fight between two student groups.

This however is not true. Even if we concede that Najeeb might have offended the religious sensibilities of some students, that is not a licence to nearly lynch him. The mater should have been reported to the concerned office within JNU and even a police complaint could have been lodged against him.

But then Najeeb became the precursor of what was to come later: the system of instant justice; where mobs lynch Muslims merely on the basis of suspicion, without any regret or remorse. In most cases, the police are more than willing to dilute cases against the accused and are reluctant to bring the culprits to book. Something similar happened in Najeeb’s case. The only time they started having some semblance of seriousness was when the courts told them to double their efforts to find the missing student. Random searches were made here and there just for appearance sake. But by then almost a year had elapsed and crucial evidence which might have given some clues about his whereabouts were lost. What was worse: malicious leaks were fed to a pliant media which started debating how Najeeb had joined the ISIS.

Two years later, the CBI has now filed a closure report in the case. Alarmingly, the High Court allowed the CBI to do so despite the protestations of the family concerned. One cannot even fathom what would be crossing the minds and hearts of Najeeb’s mother, who has been running from pillar to post to seek justice for her son. Her only consolation if at all it is one: there are many Najeebs who have been failed by the system.

But then, this story is not complete without calling out the system. And the system in this case did not just consist of those who assaulted Najeeb but also by those who claim to be his greatest benefactors. It is certainly true that Najeeb was assaulted by right wing hoodlums but then what of the other kind of violence which this fellow endured, something which perhaps was decisive in his decision to leave the campus. On the night of the assault, Najeeb was not offered any counselling although there is an on-campus medical facility. What is astounding is that the same night, he was humiliated and asked to leave the hostel, not just in presence of the wardens but also the president of the leftist student union.

 As a fresher on campus, Najeeb must have heard that the Left student union would be sensitive and considerate, given his religious identity. This is not hard to believe: the left actually sells itself as the champion of minorities on campus. Imagine the mental agony of this student when he would have realised that no just the administration and the right wingers but also the leftists had turned against him.

Here was a boy, who had freshly got admission in one of the hostels in JNU and probably had heard much about the progressive and leftist traditions of JNU, was witnessing in front of him that the same left, in cahoots with the administration, was asking him to leave the hostel as a form of punishment.  It was perhaps this realisation that made him leave the campus the following morning and left must be called out for its complicity in his disappearance. Who is to blame for his disappearance? Of course, the right-wing hoodlums who beat him up that night but then what about the glorious left which failed to protect him. And not just failed to protect him but in a way facilitated his forced exit from the campus.

It is rather hypocritical that the left has now Najeeb’s disappearance into an annual ritual and another occasion to hold candle light marches for him. This is nothing but pure and callous politics at its best. First you allow a person to get nearly lynched and then you do politics over his disappearance. It must be remembered that unlike many others who have been targeted by the system, Najeeb came from a very humble background. Lacking in social network, the family had no one but JNU students to bank upon in order to seek even a semblance of justice. But then, whether it is the left or the right, only those embedded in power networks have any hope of getting justice.

It is utterly shameful that a campus which prides itself over it sensitive and progressive character failed to even give a call for a day long strike to protest against Najeeb’s disappearance. The reluctance to take up the issue was visible right from the very beginning. It was actually the pressure of common students which forced the administration and leftists to join the struggle; otherwise they were mostly interested in burying the issue. The so-called progressive teachers of this campus acted as if nothing had happened. The very radical teacher’s union just sat quietly through the entire episode and did not even have the courage to protest against the administration. More importantly they refused to see the incident as one which involved the targeting of Muslim identity.

When we remember Najeeb year after year, let us not forget the dubious role that the left played in the entire incident.      

Arshad Alam is a NewAgeIslam.com columnist

Courtesy: New Age Islam

The post Why the Left Needs to Be Called out for Its Role in Najeeb’s Disappearance appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
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.”
 

The post I will challenge CBI’s closure report: Najeeb Ahmed’s mother appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Speaking to reporters here after the court’s hearing, Nafees strongly criticised the “shoddy” investigation by, first the Delhi Police and then by the country’s premier Central Bureau of Investigation, which failed to find her son even after two years of his disappearance.
“I am disappointed but have not lost hope. I would advise those who may be gloating over this (court’s) decision because I will not relent,” Nafees said.

“There is no clue about my son’s whereabouts even after two years. Why has no action been taken against the Station House Officer of the Vasant Kunj North Police Station, who tried to mislead me when I first went there to file the complaint? Why do people become deaf and mute when it comes to Najeeb?

“I have full faith in the Indian Constitution… as our elders used to say that lie runs faster than the truth… however late, I will get justice,” she said.

She also spoke against the government, specifically against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, and accused it of pressuring the CBI, courts and the police for the shoddy work and adverse verdict.

“I am not scared of anyone. BJP will see its rout soon. This won’t last long. I also appeal to all those mothers whose sons are persecuted and killed in encounters to come and stand by me, and I will stand by them,” she said.

She also demanded resignation of CBI Director Alok Verma, criticising him for “bringing disgrace to the country”.

The Delhi High Court had earlier in the day allowed the CBI plea seeking permission to file its closure report into the disappearance of Ahmed, an M.Sc. student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), who was reported missing from Delhi in October 2016.

Earlier, on court’s direction the case was transferred from Delhi Police to the CBI on Nafees’ plea.

Nafees had sought a Special Investigation Team (SIT) — comprising non-CBI officers — to further probe her son’s disappearance from a JNU hostel in the intervening night of October 14-15.

But the court declined the plea to form an SIT and monitor its work.

According to witnesses, Ahmed was beaten up by a mob of students on the night of October 15 in Mahi-Mandvi Hostel, where he lived. After the brawl, Ahmed disappeared the same night.

His mother, supported by students’ union of JNU and other universities, will take out a protest march from Mandi House to Parliament Street on October 15 against the authorities’ failure to locate Najeeb.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

The post ‘Disappointed, but have not lost hope,’ says Najeeb’s mother appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
Fatima had, with the help of the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), sued the publications for a whopping Rs 2.2 crores. But just as the case came up for hearing on September 14, the defamation case file went missing from Metropolitan Magistrate Ambika Singh’s registry at the Patiala House Court. This prompted Fatima Nafees to issue the following press release:

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Missing Student, Missing File!
 
September 14, 2018
 
The criminal defamation case file of Fatima Nafees, mother of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, goes missing from Metropolitan Magistrate Ambika Singh’s registry in Patiala House Court! In a most shocking and brazen manner, the file itself has been removed from the court premises.
 
Fatima Nafees has filed this complaint against prominent media houses like Times Group and India Today Group as well as individuals such as ABVP activist Saurabh Sharma for defaming her son by maliciously alleging that he had joined an international terrorist organization despite no evidence and denial issued by the Delhi Police. In the second part of her statement which was to be recorded today, Fatima was to bring on record the role of India Today, Dilli Aaj Tak and of Saurabh Sharma. It is no coincidence that the file has gone “missing”.
 
The Times of India began the most malicious, derogatory, and defamatory campaign against Najeeb Ahmed on 21st March 2017 claiming that Najeeb was “watching inflammatory material on his laptop” and linked him with an international terrorist organisation. This communal and hate-filled propaganda was picked up by other news agencies, and widely circulated on social media.
 
The matter was listed for today after more than 3 months. When Fatima Nafees last recorded a part of her statement on 26th May 2018, she was narrating the background to this case about the disappearance of her son, and by the time she began to name the first accused, that is, Times of India, the judge abruptly asked her to stop. Only one of the 10 accused was named till then.
 
Even as the Delhi police was partisan and shielded the ABVP members who assaulted Najeeb, the CBI has surrendered to their political masters in the central government. To aid their efforts, certain sections of the media have run a malicious and communal propaganda. The only hope was to knock on the doors of the court. Tragically, seeking justice for Najeeb through legal means has also seen the brazen interference from the corridors of power.
 
The right-wing BJP government has interfered in this case from the first day to protect its ABVP members. Now it is in their interest to stop this defamation case from going to trial. It helps to perpetuate their polarising agenda as long as Najeeb and Fatima’s names are tainted with malicious and false suspicions.
 
When Mr Arun Jaitley filed a defamation case, the court wanted to finish the hearing in 3 months and the matter was listed every week. In the case of a marginalised person, somehow courts are not able to find dates to conduct the hearing on an urgent basis. Now even the file goes missing. Why such double standards for justice for the citizens of this country?
 
— Issued by Fatima Nafees  
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