Missing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmed's mother was released shortly after being detained by the Delhi police when she was protesting outside the Delhi High Court on Monday, 16 September. Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) faced flak from the High Court bench for "complete lack of interest" in tracing him.
Najeeb's mother, Fatima Nafees, and over 30 JNU students were protesting outside the High Court. They were detained while trying to enter its premises, police sources said.
"Nearly 35 people, including Najeeb's mother, have been detained," Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) BK Singh said. He said the detainees, mostly students, were taken to the Barakhamba Road Police Station.
JNU students also alleged that the police "manhandled" Nafees in the name of detaining her and others.
"Delhi Police officers told Nafees that this was not the only case they were handling, and brutally manhandled her while detaining her," former JNUSU president Mohit Kumar Pandey alleged.
A journalist from India Tomorrow News, Ghazanfar Abbas, was also detained.
Nafees was horrifically dragged into a police vehicle. I showed them my press ID but they still detained me.Ghazanfar Abbas, journalist, India Tomorrow News
Delhi High Court Slams CBI for Lack of Interest
The Delhi High Court on Monday, 16 October, pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for filing the same report as last time on its probe into the disappearance of Ahmad. The High Court said the case was "not transferred to the agency for fun".
“There is nothing new. It is the same report of 17 July. We did not adjourn matter on that date to examine this two-and-a-half page scrap today (Monday),” a bench of Justices GS Sistani and Chander Shekhar told the agency.
It directed the CBI to file a fresh status report before the next date of hearing on 6 September.
The High Court had on 16 May ordered the CBI to take over the probe into the mysterious circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the student since October 2016.
The order was passed on the plea of Ahmed's mother, who moved the court on 25 November for tracing her son, a first-year MSc Biotechnology student who went missing from JNU hostel Mahi Mandavi.
Najeed Ahmed had an altercation with some students of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in the campus the night before he went missing. Later, students of the RSS-affiliated student body denied any involvement in the case.
(With inputs from PTI)
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