Delhi court seeks CBI's reply on plea of missing JNU student's mother against closure report

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court Thursday sought CBI's response on a petition moved by Fatima Nafees, mother of the missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, against the closure report it had filed in the case.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Harjyot Singh Bhalla directed the CBI to file its reply by May 8.

The petition, filed through advocate Harsh Bora, sought further investigation by the probe agency in the case, claiming that it did not conduct a proper investigation and filed the closure report on false grounds.

It challenged the conclusion of the CBI in the case that Ahmed went missing voluntarily.

Investigation into the disappearance of Ahmed, who went missing from the university, came to an end last year after the Delhi High Court allowed the CBI to file a closure report in the matter.

The high court did not agree with the allegation of Ahmed's mother that the CBI wanted to file the closure report due to "political compulsions".

The CBI had filed the closure report saying efforts to trace him have yielded no results.

The agency had announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for anyone giving information about Najeeb and informed police chiefs of all state police in the country.

Ahmed had gone missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) here on October 15, 2016, following a scuffle with some students allegedly affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) the previous night.

As Delhi Police remained clueless about Ahmed's whereabouts even after seven months of his missing, the probe was handed over to the CBI on May 16, 2017.