New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has sought the response of the Uttar Pradesh government on a writ petition filed by Dr. Kafeel Ahmad Khan, challenging his suspension from BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur, for over four years, said news reports.
The bench of Justice Yashwant Verma observed that the state of Uttar Pradesh is obliged to justify the continuance of the order of suspension which has continued for more than four years.
On September 2, 2017, he was arrested for the death of infants at a hospital in Gorakhpur and spent about nine months in prison. He was one of nine people accused in the case.
Two years after the infant deaths, on September 27, 2019, he was absolved of all charges in the case. An internal hospital inquiry committee cleared him of the allegations.
According to LiveLaw, all other accused who were suspended along with him have been reinstated except Khan despite getting clearance from many inquiries.
Also read: Gorakhpur Deaths: Adityanath Government Ignored SOS on Oxygen Payments for Months a
The Hindustan Times had reported how Khan became a one-man army for the junior doctors and hospital staff, following alleged disruption of oxygen supply at the Gorakhpur hospital, and arranged oxygen cylinders to save lives.
Despite that, he was named in an FIR registered under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. It was also alleged that the reason behind the shortage of medical oxygen was due to his negligence.
However, the inquiry committee said he was not the nodal officer of the encephalitis ward and thus it was not negligence on his part that led to the deaths.
In December 12, 2019, Khan delivered a speech at the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest at Aligarh Muslim University, following which an FIR was filed against him for making ‘inflammatory’ and ‘provocative’ statements. The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force later arrested him in Mumbai, where Khan had come to attend an anti-CAA protest.
An Aligarh court granted him bail, but he was not released from jail as the UP Police slapped charges under the stringent National Security Act (NSA).
In September last year, the Allahabad high court quashed the detention of Khan under the NSA and directed the government to immediately release him. Even the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Bobde refused to interfere with Allahabad high court order.