JNU protestors detained, Section 144 imposed

A day after Delhi Police formed a Special Investigating Team to probe the missing case of Jawaharlal Nehru University student Najeeb Ahmed after Union Minister Rajnath Singh directed Commissioner of Delhi Police Alok Kumar Verma to look into the matter, more than 150 JNU students, who were reportedly en-route to stage a protest at the Ministry of Home Affairs as well as Rail Bhawan were allegedly detained by the Delhi Police at Windsor Place on Friday afternoon.

A senior Delhi Police official confirmed that they have imposed Section 144 in the New Delhi district after the JNU students came to protest at Jantar Mantar.

To avert any law and order problem in the Lutyen’s Delhi, a large contingent of the Delhi Police and Border Security Force (BSF) were deployed outside the Rail Bhawan. Moreover, to ensure smooth traffic on the Raisina Road, several traffic personnel from the Delhi Traffic Police unit were also deployed.

Apart from former JNU students Shehla Rashid and Ashutosh Kumar, an uncle of Najeeb Ahmed, a first year Biotechnology student who went missing last week, was also part of the protest.

Talking about how Delhi Police misguided the protesters who had come for a peaceful protest, Shehla Rashid, former JNUSU vice-president said: “We were supposed to stage a protest at the Rail Bhawan.

The Delhi Police had prior information about this. At the time we left the JNU campus, two police escort jeeps were following our buses which had 2 batches of a 100 students. Instead of taking us to the Rail Bhawan, they took a detour and dropped us at Aurobindo Marg. When we raised an alarm, they took us to Jantar Mantar without our consent and then eventually detained us inside the Parliament Street police station.”

Once brought outside the Parliament Street police station inside the police vans and DTC buses, scores of angry protesters reportedly seen carrying posters started raising slogans against the Delhi Police and the Ministry for not being able to find Najeeb Ahmed. One of the protesters said: “When will the Delhi Police find Ahmed? After his dead body is found dumped at an isolated spot?”

Detained for two hours, a senior Delhi Police official said that the protesters were released later in the evening.

Meanwhile, a senior police officer of the South district said that a day after they announced constituting an SIT in the Najeeb Ahmed case, they have no clue about the whereabouts of the student.