Najeeb’s mother files defamatory case against media houses

New Delhi: Najeeb Ahmed’s mother Fatima Nafees, has filed a defamation case against certain media houses for labelling her son to be an “ISIS sympathizer.” Najeeb Ahmed, a Jawaharlal Nehru University student, has been missing since October 2016, reportedly following an alleged assault on him by the ABVP, a student group affiliated to the RSS.

Fatima filed a law suit in the Delhi high court against Times of India, Times Now, Dilli Aajtak besides reporters of the India Today group. She has demanded to retract all articles and also sought damages worth Rs 2.2 crore.

The suit has been filed through the Human Rights Law Network. In the suit, Nafees has claimed that in its report Times of India quoted police sources saying Najeeb was looking for information about the terrorist organisation a day before his disappearance on October 14, 2016. It was reported that Ahmed’s internet browsing history apparently showed that he was looking for information on ISIS’s “ideology, execution and network,” and that his searches included “ways to join ISIS” and similar such queries.

Though Delhi police officials had later denied having accessed any such information on Ahmed, media houses failed to retract their stories.