Adding new twist to the tale of the mysterious disappearance of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, a proctorial enquiry set up by the JNU administration has found Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) member Vikrant Kumar guilty of assaulting Najeeb Ahmad. However, ABVP members have termed the enquiry as one sided.
It may be noted that Najeeb (27), a student of School of Biotechnology and a native of Badaun district in Uttar Pradesh, went missing on October 15 following an on-campus scuffle allegedly with the members of ABVP, including Vikrant, the night before. JNU had ordered a proctorial enquiry into the incident.
“In the proctorial enquiry, Kumar has been found to be involved in hitting Najeeb and using derogatory language with provocative behaviour on October 14. This is an act of indiscipline and misconduct,” an official order read. Vikrant has been asked to explain why disciplinary action should not be initiated against him.
The ABVP has, meanwhile, come out in Vikrant’s support and accused the university administration of being “biased” in conducting the enquiry.” The proctor has taken deposition of those students into account who were not even present there. Not only the enquiry is biased but even the administration is siding with the left-dominated students union,” said Saurabh Sharma, ABVP member and former JNUSU member.
JNU students and teachers have been agitating against the university administration and the Delhi Police for their failure to locate the missing student. The protesting students had even confined the Vice-Chancellor and other senior officials in the administrative building for over 20 hours.
It may be recalled that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to trace the missing student on the directive of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma.
The SIT, headed by Additional DCP-II (South) Manishi Chandra, failed to get any actionable clues in the matter. The case was later transferred to Delhi Police’s Crime Branch and the reward money for providing information about Najeeb’s whereabouts was raised to Rs 5 lakh.
The Crime Branch was able to locate the auto driver who was hired by Najeeb on October 16 last at Nelson Mendela Marg. The auto driver told the Crime Branch sleuths that he had dropped Najeeb at the gate of Jamia Milia Islamia. After Jamia administration granted permission to them after five days, no leads were found. Police probe was also hampered since the footage of the CCTV installed at the gate of Jamia was erased, said a senior Delhi Police official.
“We have double up efforts to trace Najeeb and police teams have been sent to many placed on the basis of investigations carried so far,” the official added.
However, Jamia authorities claimed that they have been cooperative in the probe in every possible way.