IGNOU’s PhD student 'goes missing' from JNU campus

New Delhi: A 26-year-old PhD student of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) here, has gone missing from the JNU campus, police said. Mukul Jain, enrolled in IGNOU's Life Sciences course, has been missing since January 8, they said. He was not a registered student of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and had gone to meet his research adviser in the JNU campus, and later went missing, police said. Earlier in the day, police had said, Jain was a student of the JNU. Director of Research Unit of IGNOU, Kaustuva Barik confirmed that, "Jain was a PhD scholar of the open university whose first supervisor was from the IGNOU, and a co-supervisor from the JNU." "His first supervisor informed me that the student went missing from the JNU campus, the day before yesterday. He had told his friends that he was going somewhere. We will offer all kind of assistance needed (to trace him)," Barik said. ALSO READ - Astronaut says he grew 9cm in 3 weeks, later apologies for ‘fake news A missing report was registered in the evening of January 8. It is suspected that he was having some problems in his relationship, said a senior police officer from the South-west District. Till now, no foul play has been suspected, police said. Incidentally, the prestigious JNU has been in the news for last one year or so for the disappearance of Najeeb Ahmed. Najeeb, a JNU student, went missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of the university on October 15, 2016, following a scuffle with some other students, allegedly affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the previous night. Over a month after the incident, his mother moved the Delhi High Court, seeking directions to the police to trace her son. The high court on May 16 last year handed over to the CBI the investigation into the disappearance of Najeeb, a student of M.Sc in Biotechnology.