Last Friday, the CBI told the Delhi High Court that it has “not found any evidence” to show that any crime was committed on Najeeb, the JNU student who has been missing since October 15th, 2016. It said that the disappearance of Najeeb from Mahi-Mandavi hostel is only a “missing” person case as of now. Even after one year has passed since the case of Najeeb’s assault and disappearance was handed over to the CBI, even after one year has passed without a single step towards the realisation of justice, the CBI has no hesitation about making these false statements.
On what basis is the CBI making these assertions? The CBI said that out of the nine phones belonging to the accused ABVP , three could not be examined by its forensic laboratory (CFSL) in Chandigarh, since two were in damaged condition and the third had a ‘pattern lock’ which could not be unlocked. What a ridiculous excuse this is: the Central Bureau of Investigation is unable to ‘unlock’ the phone of an ABVP student in JNU???!!!
The CBI has told the Delhi High Court that presently it does not have “an iota of evidence” to arrest or take any coercive action against the nine ABVP students who are accused to have assaulted Najeeb on the night of 14th October, 2016. We would like to point out to the CBI, that contrary to the claims that there is no evidence against those ABVP members, a Proctorial Inquiry in JNU in November 2016 found some ABVP members guilty of assaulting Najeeb. “In the proctorial inquiry, Vikrant Kumar has been found to be involved in hitting Najeeb Ahmed and using derogatory language with provocative behaviour on October 14. This is an act of indiscipline and misconduct,” an official order read. (http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/jnu-proctorial-inquiry-finds-abvp-member-guilty-of-assaulting-najeeb-ahmed-4385515/). Instead of arresting those guilty of assaulting Najeeb, why has the CBI consistently refused to take those ABVP members into custodial interrogation? Is it because the CBI wants to protect the members of the BJP’s student organisation?
We should also take note of the fact that when Fatima Nafees, Najeeb’s mother had first attempted to file an FIR against the lynching of her son, the Delhi Police had intimidated her, and had asked her to only file a ‘missing report’, and not to name any ABVP members. Therefore, it has been seen that from the very beginning of this case, there has been an attempt by all agencies of the government to shield and protect ABVP and to cover up their criminal act of assaulting Najeeb. On the other hand, Najeeb has been maligned as an ISIS recruit, so that his disappearance can be explained away by connecting him to ISIS. Instead of delivering justice to a Muslim student of JNU who was attacked and forcibly disappeared, the agencies of the government are busy shielding those guilty of attacking him. This is just another example of the blatantly anti-Muslim policies of the Hindutva ideology of the government. But we will not let Hindutva win. We will continue to fight for justice for Najeeb.
Published by YFDA-JNU SIO-JNU on 16th May 2018
