Najeeb case: UP caller involved in ’15 murder

New Delhi: A day after the police arrested the man who made a ransom call to family of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed from Maharaj-ganj in UP, the accused, identified Shameen (19), was brought to Delhi by the police on Sunday evening.

The police said the last ransom call was received a few days ago, following which the accused was arrested from Maharajganj on Saturday. He was produced before a local court, which granted transit remand to the Delhi police.

It is also being probed whether he was just making the calls for earning easy money or there was some ulterior motive, said sources.

He was questioned at length by the cops. “On questioning him, the police came to know he was involved in the alleged murder of a Class 12 student in 2015,” sources claimed. He was sent to a juvenile home for around 5 months and later released, said the sources.

“The police has seized, his phone and five SIM cards from his possession, which appear to be procured using a fake identity,” the sources added. “We are trying to ascertain his motive behind the ransom call to Najeeb Ahmed’s family. We are investigating his involvement in the case.”.

Meanwhile, the Delhi high court had earlier directed the police to conduct a lie detector tests of nine suspects allegedly having connection with the disappearance of the JNU scholar. The matter had been adjourned till January 23.

In a status report, the police had stated that 560 officials along with the dog squad had conducted search operations at the JNU campus for two days, in the presence of the missing student’s mother and brother.

In the previous hearings, the bench had make several observations and had also pulled up the Delhi police for its failure to find the Najeeb.

The court have given the cops a sort of free hand in the matter, it had directed them to use sniffer dogs to search the campus and areas in the vicinity.