Najeeb probe: HC chides CBI for 'lack of interest'

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday faced flak from the Delhi High Court for its "complete lack of interest" and not showing any result in its probe into the disappearance of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmed, five months after being handed over the investigation.

Outside the court, meanwhile, Najeeb's mother Fatima Nafees and 30 protesters, mostly students, were forcefully evicted by the Delhi Police.

According to police sources, Nafees and JNU students were detained for trying to enter the court premises.

During the court argument, a Bench of Justices G S Sistani and Chander Shekhar said they were "very unhappy" with the CBI, after contradictions appeared in what was orally submitted in the court and what it has indicated in its status report.

In its report, the CBI said that the calls and message records of the nine students suspected to be behind Najeeb's disappearance were "being analysed".

In its oral submission, however, the central investigating agency said the records were already analysed.

The bench said the CBI was "inviting these observations" by its own conduct and gave it time till November 14 to file a report to show what has been found in the suspects' call records.

The court was also told that the status report was prepared by a CBI Inspector, to which the Bench replied that as per its May 16 order – transferring the probe to CBI from Delhi Police – an officer of rank not less than Deputy Inspector General must supervise the probe.

"What sort of supervision is this? If this is the supervision by the DIG, what would happen if there is no supervision? Does the DIG read what the Inspector has said in the report? He probably does not get time to read reports there (in office). Let him come here and read it then," the court said.

The Bench told CBI, "There is nothing on the status report. There was more in the Delhi Police reports. We are saying there is complete lack of interest (by CBI). There is no result either way. No result even on paper."

The CBI was also directed to move an application in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate for an early hearing of its plea seeking consent of the suspects for a polygraph test.

The hearing had been adjourned to January 24, 2018.

The bench also directed the CMM not to give such long dates in pleas for polygraph tests, especially in such a matter where there is urgency, saying it would defeat the purpose.

Meanwhile, the protesting students alleged that police "manhandled" Fatima in the name of detaining her and others.

"Delhi Police officers told her that this was not the only case they were handling and brutally manhandled her while detaining," former JNUSU president Mohit Kumar Pandey alleged.