It's been over five months since JNU student Najeeb Ahmed went missing and the police have no clue about his whereabouts yet. Meanwhile, the rumours of him joining the ISIS have been doing the rounds. A report recently said he had searched ISIS content before going missing.
Ahmed went missing on October 15, 2016 after an altercation with members of the ABVP the previous day. The police had formed search teams to trace the first year Masters student (Biotechnology), but to no avail.
The police had also issued a public notice and a reward, ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, for pertinent information. There has been no dearth of phone calls- disguised as tip-offs- but they have all turned out to be hoaxes.
The Delhi Police had to weigh in on the reports of him being linked to ISIS and dispel the rumours on Tuesday. The police have reportedly kept an eye out for unidentified dead bodies and checked mental asylums to track him down, albeit with no effect.
Any association with ISIS has not come up in Delhi Police's investigation: Dependra Pathak, Chief Spox Delhi Police on Najeeb Ahmed Case pic.twitter.com/H63Wk4NAaw
— ANI (@ANI_news) March 21, 2017
Many have denounced the reports, which don't seem to be based on facts.
Dear @rajshekharTOI Delhi Police clarified they've no info of Najeeb browsing IS links as reported by you. Apology, retraction from TOI? pic.twitter.com/K5JkIzlisg
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) March 22, 2017
While the controversy around his whereabouts rages and various groups with their own agenda play it up, his mother and sister have almost lost hope of ever finding him.
"We have done everything possible to trace him. Several teams were formed and sent to different locations across the country. We recorded statements of his friends, relatives, batch mates but nothing concrete was found. All we were able to establish was that he was under treatment for depression. His doctor told us that he was suffering from OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)," an investigator told Hindustan Times. "We got numerous calls saying that Najeeb was seen in Allahabad, then Tamil Nadu, then some village of Maharashtra and even Assam, also one person made an extortion call to his family who was later arrested, all these calls were, however, hoax," he added.
On February 12, 2017, Ahmed's mother Fatima Nafees staged a protest with students at the Lucknow University and Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama. They demanded action against nine ABVP members named in the FIR.
On January 21, 2017, the police arrested one person from Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj for making a ransom call demanding Rs 20 lakh for Ahmed.
On January 6, 2017, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Students' Union and Students for Democratic Rights staged a protest in Lucknow to mount pressure on the Delhi Police to find Ahmed.
On December 5, 2016, JNU Students Union (JNUSU) held a demonstration outside the University Court Meeting on the campus to pressurise the administration of the university to take adequate steps to find the missing student.
In October 2016, when Ahmed's mother and sister had protested along with students inside the JNU campus, they were detained. The protest had been massive and students were accused of picketing.
However, despite the monthly protests that Ahmed's family and students hold, the police have reportedly not questioned the ABVP students with whom he had an altercation. The missing case continues to confound the police despite them casting the net wide to trace him.
Meanwhile, there are rumours that he moved to a small town and wishes to live in anonymity, but there is no evidence about what happened to him after he took an auto on the night of October 14 to Jamia Nagar in Delhi.
