The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) witnessed tense atmosphere on Wednesday after news of an Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) PhD scholar being missing from its campus spread among the students.
Mukul Jain, who used to visit the campus to meet his co-guide from JNU’s School of Life Sciences, was last seen exiting the university’s gate on Monday, leaving his belongings behind. He was a frequent visitor at JNU’s laboratory for his research for the last few years.
This is the second incident at JNU when a student has gone missing from its campus. Earlier, an MSc student Najeeb Ahmed had disappeared under mysterious circumstances from JNU’s Mahi Mandvi hostel in October 2016. His disappearance, however, was followed by an alleged scuffle with the members of RSS-backed ABVP. Najeeb is yet to be traced.
“Jain is a very calm person and he is not associated with any political group here. He has been visiting lab number 408 at the School of Life Sciences since the last few years. It’s really scary and shocking that a person like him goes missing suddenly,” said Vikramaditya, a student at the school.
Meanwhile, some students at the school also claimed that Jain has “voluntarily” gone missing to seek mental peace.