Delhi high court order on Najeeb news reports

New Delhi: After allowing the CBI to file a closure report in the case of disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, the Delhi high court on Wednesday asked some media houses to retract from their websites and YouTube certain news reports and videos which allegedly link him with terrorist organisation ISIS.

Justice J.R. Midha issued the direction on a defamation suit moved by the student’s mother, Fatima Nafees, contending that the news reports and videos are defamatory and seeking an apology as well as '2.2 crore in damages from the media houses.

Advocate Nabila Hasan, who appeared for Nafees, said “the court has directed all the defendants (media houses) to retract all articles and video clips from their websites and also remove YouTube links”. She said the matter was listed for further hearing on October 29 when it will take up Nafees’ plea seeking an apology from the media houses.

In the petition, Nafees has contended that even the Delhi police during its investigation into Ahmed’s disappearance, had not said that he had any links to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The High Court on Monday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a closure report in the case Najeeb Ahmed, who went missing from the university nearly two years ago.

The CBI, which had taken over the probe on May 16 last year, had after more than a year of investigation said it had looked into all the aspects of the case and was of the opinion that no offence was committed against the missing student.

Ahmed had gone missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) here on October 15, 2016, following a scuffle with some students allegedly affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) the previous night.