JNU students protest outside Home Ministry, 100 detained

New Delhi, October 21

JNU students, who have been agitating for the last six days over a missing student, on Friday staged a protest outside Home Ministry alleging inaction in tracing him following which nearly 100 of them were detained.

With the agitated students keeping Vice-Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar and other university officials confined to the university's administrative block for over 20 hours, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had yesterday directed Delhi Police to set up a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to trace the missing student.

A student of School of Biotechnology, Najeeb Ahmed, allegedly went missing on Saturday following a brawl on the campus the night before.

An FIR for kidnapping and wrongfully confining a person was lodged at Vasant Kunj North police station yesterday after the police received a complaint from the student's guardians.

"It has been seven days and there is no sign of Najeeb. He was beaten up in front of senior warden of the hostel, security personnel and many students. All the eyewitnesses have given statement against the identified students but they are roaming freely," JNU Students Union president Mohit Pandey said.

According to police officials, around 80-100 students were detained as a preventive measure.

Security was beefed up at Raisina Hill in anticipation of the protest. Vehicular movement was stopped on Raisina Road and police, and paramilitary forces deployed in and around the area after police received information that the university students would arrive to stage a protest.

The students also submitted a memorandum to Home Ministry officials demanding speedy investigation into the case.

JNUSU decided to change the mode of their protest after confinement of the VC and around 12 other officials attracted criticism from various quarters.

Najeeb's family, which has been camping inside the JNU campus for five days, also joined them in the protest today. — PTI