Missing Najeeb: Day 2 search yields no result

Police failed to find any clue that could give them a lead in the missing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmed's case after the second day of a massive search on the sprawling university campus on Tuesday.

While hundreds of policemen and paramilitary troopers along with Crime Branch sleuths combed the sprawling university campus for the second consecutive day, Najeeb's family openly voiced their scepticism over the efficacy of the police operation.

"We are sceptical whether police is really sincere in this case. They are doing now what should have been done in the very first week, and that too only after the court's orders," Najeeb's brother Mujeeb told IANS.

Najeeb Ahmed went missing from the campus on October 15, reportedly following a scuffle with a few Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists.

Police resumed the search on Tuesday at 9.00 a.m. and continued until 5.00 p.m. and scanned residential, academic and administrative blocks and the forested area. The search involved 20 sniffer dogs apart from mounted police and hundreds of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers.

On the second day, the search operation covered the 1,000-acre forest area around the campus, along with the hostels, dhabas, administrative block, academic centres, sewer lines and drains. Twenty sniffer dogs were part of the search team, police said.

"We have searched JNU campus for the second consecutive day, but have not found any lead in tracing Najeeb," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Yadav said.

However, Mujeeb said the use of sniffer dogs is "clearly a futile exercise now" as hardly any scent would be left there after two months.

He also accused the police and university administration of going soft on the ABVP activists. The ABVP is the student wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"The university administration and the police are going soft on the ABVP activists. While Najeeb bhai was expelled from the hostel on that very night after the scuffle, the ABVP activists have just been shifted from one hostel to another," Mujeeb said.

Meanwhile, the ABVP demanded a "thorough probe" into the matter.

"No trace of Najeeb even after two days of massive search operations in JNU... The police should investigate the case thoroughly that includes a thorough interrogation of JNU Students Union office-bearers and other Left activists, such as Umar Khalid, Hamid Raza, Shahid Raza Khan, Akbar Chowdhary, etc.," ABVP leader Saurabh Sharma said.

"There is all possibility that Najeeb might have gone missing owing to a conspiracy woven by the JNU Students Union under the supervision of their political masters. We also demand that these people should be made to undertake lie detector tests," he added.

--IANS

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