Disappearance of Najeeb Ahmed

Najeeb Ahmed was a first-year M.Sc. Biotechnology student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, India. A native of Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, he had resided at the Mahi-Mandavi hostel on the JNU campus for less than a week before he disappeared on 15 October 2016. His family and the JNU Students' Union have consistently maintained that his disappearance was linked to an assault the previous night, in which he was allegedly attacked by nine members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) after they knocked on his door seeking votes for an upcoming hostel election.

Following the disappearance, his mother, Fatima Nafees, filed a habeas corpus petition before the Delhi High Court on 25 November 2016, alleging that the Delhi Police had failed to make progress in the month since her son went missing. Police had filed a First Information Report for kidnapping and wrongful confinement on the day he disappeared. Over time, investigation of the case was handled successively by a Special Investigation Team of the Delhi Police, the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), none of which found any leads. The Delhi High Court reprimanded these agencies at various points for what it characterized as poorly executed investigative work.

Investigators used CCTV footage to identify a rickshaw that Ahmed reportedly took from the JNU campus, and the CBI sent the mobile phones of the nine accused ABVP members to a forensic science laboratory in Chandigarh, extracting 122 gigabytes of data from six phones without finding relevant information. In June 2017, the CBI announced a reward of 10 lakh rupees for information leading to Ahmed. The CBI later told the Delhi High Court that the Delhi Police had forced a false statement from an auto driver claiming to have driven Ahmed to Jamia Millia Islamia, evidence that the Delhi Police had used to argue Ahmed left campus voluntarily; a parallel theory citing his medical history to suggest he was "mentally disturbed" was also dropped after no connection to his disappearance could be established. In May 2019, the Delhi High Court asked the CBI whether Ahmed was alive or dead; the CBI responded that he was last seen with a friend and "must have been in hiding," a claim his mother disputed.

The JNU administration faced criticism from students and the JNU Teachers' Association for describing Ahmed as "an accused" in official circulars and for issuing a 25-point bulletin that omitted mention of the assault preceding his disappearance. In June 2017, the JNU Students' Union stated that students who had campaigned for justice for Najeeb were fined and given hostel transfers, while those accused of assaulting him were only transferred and continued to move freely on campus. Fatima Nafees has since participated in numerous protests and public events marking anniversaries of her son's disappearance and calling for accountability.