Waiting for CBI’s response, missing JNU scholar’s family spend night on road

New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) Relatives and friends of missing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) scholar Najeeb Ahmed spent entire Friday night outside the CBI headquarters here in the hope of getting an answer from the agency regarding his whereabouts.

Ahmed's mother, his sister and his brother and scores of students slept on straw mats spread on the road outside the agency's office and demanded to talk to the CBI chief Alok Kumar Verma.

National Students Union of India leader Sunny Dhiman told IANS that Verma did come to meet the protesters but said nothing of substance to provide any hope.

"He consoled Najeeb's mother but was still as clueless as ever about his whereabouts... We hope to get something from it (CBI) when the hearing is due in the case where they are supposed to submit its report.. They have been lambasted even previously twice by the court for their slow action," Dhiman, who was at the forefront of the protest, told IANS over phone.

As of now, the protesters are still picketing the CBI HQ and Ahmed's mother Fatima Nafees has called for a public meeting to support her at 5 p.m. on the spot where Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Brinda Karat and poet Munawwar Rana are expected to attend.

The night vigil was the extension of a demonstration staged there during the day on Friday by hundreds of protesters, some of whom even got into a brief scuffle with police while trying to get past barricades put in place to stop them from gathering.