Gorakhpur Doctor Kafeel Khan Arrested For His Aligarh 'Hate Speech'

Dr Kafeel Khan, suspended after the deaths of infants at Gorakhpur’s government hospital, was arrested from Mumbai on Wednesday night for alleged ‘inflammatory’ remarks at an anti-CAA rally in Aligarh last year. Dr Khan was booked under the section 153-A of the Indian penal Code. He was arrested by a team of Uttar Pradesh STF at the Mumbai Airport. There are reports that Dr Khan was in Mumbai to take part in a Shaheen Bagh-like protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. According to police officials, Dr Khan gave a ‘hate speech’ on December 12 last year right outside the Aligarh Muslim University. The police added that during the anti-CAA rally, Dr Khan had also made some objectionable remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

December 12 Rally

The FIR against Khan mentions that Swaraj India's president Yogendra Yadav was also present during the speech at AMU. After the arrest, Dr Khan will be taken to Uttar Pradesh on transit remand, an official said. Khan, a paediatrician, had come to the limelight in 2017 when a controversy broke out after the death of over 60 children in less than a week at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, UP.

Gorakhpur Tragedy

Dr Khan is facing probe over medical negligence in the Gorakhpur tragedy case. In October last year, the Uttar Pradesh government had said that Dr Khan was still under probe and there was no question of clean-chit to him. UP Principal Secretary Medical Education Rajnish Dube had said that, "Dr Kafeel Ahmed Khan hasn't been given clean chit by the government. A probe is still underway against him in seven charges." The infants had died allegedly because of disruption in oxygen supply due to pending payments to the supplier, a charge stoutly refuted by the state government. The Yogi Adityanath government maintains that the children died due to different illnesses, including Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and there was no shortage of oxygen.

However, Dr Khan had claimed otherwise. Dr Khan had said: "Principal, BRD Medical College, Ganesh Kumar gave me the UP government letter. It clearly describes that I am free from charges of medical negligence, corruption and not performing duty on that fateful day when around 70 children lost their lives at BRD Medical College Hospital".

UP Govt’s Probe

As per the investigation report, Dr Khan was neither the nodal medical officer in charge of encephalitis wards at BRD nor documents contesting the same provided by the department were adequate and consistent.

The report also stated that Dr Khan was not involved in the process of allotting tenders for oxygen supply amounting to corruption, or of medical negligence on his part on the day of the tragedy.

The report also said that Dr Khan informed seniors about shortage of oxygen supply and arranged seven oxygen cylinders on the night of August 10-11, 2017.