On September 1, the Allahabad High Court quashed the detention of Dr Kafeel Khan by the Uttar Pradesh government under the National Securi...
On September 1, the Allahabad High Court quashed the detention of Dr Kafeel Khan by the Uttar Pradesh government under the National Security Act. In a brief but tough order, the High Court held that both the original order of detention in February and the subsequent two extensions of the detention were unsustainable in law.
Khan had shot to fame during in 2017, when 63 children died in August in the government hospital in which he was working in Gorakhpur. The deaths occurred after a contractor stopped supplying oxygen to the facility. The media reported that Khan had spent his own money to obtain oxygen cylinders for the hospital. But the Uttar Pradesh government denied that the babies had died due to a lack of oxygen. Instead, Khan was charged with medical negligence, corruption and dereliction of duty and jailed.
On his release in April 2018 after nine months in jail, Khan became a vocal critic of the Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government on various matters. In January this year, the Aligarh police filed an First Information Report against him for making a speech at Aligarh Muslim University against the backdrop of the protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act that the authorities claimed was...
