CBI Closure Report: Delhi Court Allows Najeeb’s Mother to File Protest Petition

A Delhi court on Tuesday allowed Fatima Nafees, the mother of Jawaharlal Nehru University student Najeeb Ahmed who went missing two years ago, to file a protest petition against the closure report of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case.

The CBI prosecutor objected the prayer for supply of documents and submitted that there is no provision of protest petition and consequently supply of documents. The court said that law is settled that in case of closure/cancellation report, the complainant is to be given opportunity to file the protest petition, if so desired by the complainant, and it said that in this case, complainant was desirous of filing a protest petition.

It said there cannot be a half-hearted approach and an effective opportunity must be given to the complainant [Fatima Nafees] to file the protest petition. The whole of the cancellation report along with the statement of witnesses' and documents which are part and parcel of the cancellation report should be supplied to her, it ordered.

Accordingly, the court directed the CBI to supply to the complainant all such statements of witnesses' as well as documents as mentioned along with such closure report. It said that the CBI is at liberty to supply all the statements/documents to the complainant within two weeks in physical form or electronic form. It directed the IO to appear in person on next date of hearing for compliance.

Counsel for the complainant had relied for advancing the argument on protest petition on observations of the Supreme Court in Jakia Nasim Ahesan and Ors. v. State of Gujarat and Ors, in which the Supreme Court had said that "if there is no sufficient evidence or reasonable grounds for proceeding against any person named in the complaint, 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 statement of the witnesses, other related documents and the investigation report strictly in accordance with law as enunciated by the [Supreme] Court in Bhagwant Singh v. Commissioner of Police & Anr".

Closure Report by CBI

In October 2018, the CBI had filed closure report in the case. It had said that it explored case from all angles and that no offense was committed against missing student Najeeb Ahmed. Fatima Nafees had alleged that the CBI filed the closure report because of "political compulsions". Fatima's counsel had also told court that the CBI had succumbed to the pressure of its "political masters".

Najeeb's Disappearance

Najeeb Ahmed went missing from Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU) on October 15, 2016, where he was pursuing MSc in Biotechnology. His mother Fatima had claimed a "conspiracy" behind his disappearance saying that her son did not leave the JNU campus on his own