A Delhi court on Monday asked nine Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students to file replies to a CBI plea seeking consent for a lie detection test on them in connection with the disappearance of Najeeb Ahmed.
Najeeb, a first-year MSc Biotechnology student, has been missing since October 16 last year.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal asked the university students to file their replies by November 10.
The court had last week reserved order on the investigation agency’s plea seeking early hearing of its pending application over conducting the polygraph test on the nine students.
‘Plea for early hearing’
The investigative agency had on October 17 filed an application for conducting the test after the Delhi High Court directed it to move the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court in the Patiala House Courts for early hearing of the pending plea.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate had earlier scheduled the plea for hearing on January 24. The High Court had said that even family members of the missing student could undergo the polygraph test.
The court had on May 16 transferred investigation in the case from the Delhi Police to the CBI.
Earlier, the students had opposed a Delhi Police application seeking the court’s permission to conduct a lie detection test on them.
They had argued that there was no provision under the Code of Criminal Procedure, whereby the magistrate court could direct any person to undergo a lie detector test or direct him or her to record consent or refusal for the same.