A proctorial inquiry conducted by the administration of the Jawaharlal Nehru University has found a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad guilty of assaulting Najeeb Ahmad, who went missing after the incident. An official order by the university said Vikrant Kumar was found guilty of assaulting Ahmad and “using derogatory language with provocative behaviour”, PTI reported on Sunday.

Kumar has been asked to explain why disciplinary action should not be initiated against him in connection with the October 14 brawl. However, the ABVP has come out in support of Kumar and has accused the JNU administration of being biased in its inquiry into the incident. ABVP member Saurabh Sharma said the proctor had taken depositions from students who were not present during the brawl. “The administration is siding with the left-dominated students union,” he said.

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Ahmad has been missing for more than a month. Investigators on Wednesday said the student had hired an auto-rickshaw to take him from the JNU campus to Jamia Milia Islamia University before he went missing. The Delhi Police has also hiked the reward for providing information about Ahmad from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. The case has been transferred to the Crime Branch for them to have a “fresh look” at it. Earlier, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung had said that Ahmad was spotted in Bihar’s Darbhanga town.

The case of Ahmad going missing has snowballed on and off campus. On Tuesday, the university administration had denied permission to the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union to hold a protest march in solidarity with Ahmad. The administration had said the protest could have caused unrest leading to security threats in the campus. On November 6, the Delhi Police had detained Ahmad’s mother and a group of students while they were protesting against his disappearance at India Gate.