Annoyed with the tardy pace of investigation into the disappearance of Najeeb Ahmad the student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi High Court again rapped the Delhi Police over the manner of its probe. Najeeb has been missing since October last year. A double Bench of the High Court said on Friday that the agency appeared to be looking for an “escape route” and “beating around the bush”.
A Bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Deepa Sharma said the conduct of the police showed it was trying to sensationalise the matter or looking for a way out as it was filing reports in sealed covers and “there was nothing confidential, damaging or crucial” in them.
The court was referring to the forensic analysis reports of the missing student’s laptop and call records that the police had filed in a sealed cover, but had initially not even shared with its own lawyer.
“This conduct itself ... You (police) pitch it (report) so high that you are sharing with us something so confidential which is not even shared with your trusted lawyer, gives us the impression that it was a fast one being played on us.
“We have to keep in mind the possibility that the police is trying to sensationalise or trying to find an escape route. We are left with the impression that the investigation is not being done properly,” the Bench said.
The court also lashed out at the police saying it has been “beating around the bush and not in the bush” as it has been sending people across the country and setting up special investigating teams (SITs), but the nine students suspected to be behind Najeeb’s disappearance were not questioned on day one and neither were they taken into custody.
The police has faced the wrath of the court several times earlier too in this case for the manner in which it has been carrying out the probe and even for not sharing some information with its own lawyer.
Noting that the messages of the suspected students have not yet been examined, the court today said if the messages of the period when Najeeb went missing have been deleted, “then that in itself is incriminating”.
Blasting the manner the police carried out the probe, the court also said “if today it is Najeeb, tomorrow it could be anybody, just because he belongs to some other community or a political body”.
The police cannot refrain from investigating the suspects merely because of their political affiliation. “It cannot be like this. We are not satisfied,” the bench said.
Responding to the court’s observations, DCP Ram Gopal Naik, who heads the SIT, told the court how he went about investigating the case and what all aspects and angles, including that of Najeeb’s medical condition, were considered by him. He said he could not seize the mobile phones of the suspected students as there was no material to proceed against them.
However, the bench disagreed with the stand saying if the suspected students had allegedly assaulted Najeeb a day before his disappearance, then “it was logical” to check their mobile phones. It also told the police officer not to be “judgemental” about the medical condition of Najeeb. Staff Reporter
The court was hearing a plea by Najeeb’s mother, Fatima Nafees, seeking whereabouts about her son who went missing from the JNU campus on October 15 last year and is yet to be traced. Now she is seeking dismantling of the SIT and setting up of an independent SIT of police officers from outside Delhi.