New Delhi: "My wait for Najeeb will continue till my last breath", said Fatima Nafees, mother of first-year JNU student Najeeb Ahmed who went missing in 2016. She said that she would speak to her lawyers to explore a future course of action.

A Delhi court on Monday allowed the CBI to close Ahmed's case saying that the agency "exhausted all options".

Ahmed went missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of JNU, following a scuffle with some students allegedly affiliated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad the previous night.

Talking to PTI over the phone, Nafees said, "I will talk to my lawyers. But my wait for Najeeb will continue till my last breath. I pray for him every day and I hope I will get justice one day."

She was involved in multiple protests demanding a fair probe into her son's case. She said she has not been keeping well.

The CBI in October 2018 closed its investigation into the case as the agency's efforts to trace Ahmed yielded no results.

The agency filed its closure report before the court in the case after getting permission from the Delhi High Court.

Nafees' counsel had previously said it was a "political case" in which the "CBI has succumbed to the pressure of its masters".

The case was initially probed by Delhi Police but later transferred to the CBI.

Additional chief judicial magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari also "earnestly hoped" Najeeb was traced soon.

"This court expresses its regret that while the proceedings in the present case end with this closure report, a closure for Najeeb's mother and other loved ones, still eludes us," the order said.

While it accepted the agency's closure report, the court granted liberty to the CBI to re-open the investigation on the receipt of any credible information on Ahmed's whereabouts and intimate the court accordingly.

PTI