Dr Kafeel Khan cleared of NSA charges

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed charges filed against Dr Kafeel Khan under the National Security Act (NSA) and ordered his immediate release. Khan has been in jail since January 29, 2020 at the Mathura jail in Uttar Pradesh.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Govind Mathur and comprising Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh, was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Khan’s mother Nuzhat Parveen, who sought his release on grounds that he had been detained illegally.

Khan was arrested in January for delivering speech at Aligarh Muslim University on December 10, 2019. The NSA charges were invoked against him on February 13,2020, on the orders of Aligarh District Magistrate.

In mid-August, the UP government extended Khan’s detention by another three months.

Under the NSA, people can be detained without a charge for upto 12 months if authorities feel that they are threat to the national security or law and order.

Khan was booked under IPC section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion).
The FIR registered against him states that his speech threatened to disrupt the harmony between the communities and was also likely to create a law and order situation.

Later, sections 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code were added to the FIR.

In 2017, Dr Kafeel Khan was blamed for the death of nearly 60 children at the state-run BRD hospital in Gorakhpur due to oxygen shortage, where he worked as a pediatrician.He was charged with medical negligence and dereliction of duty and had spent nine months behind bars at the time.

Though he was later given a clean chit in a departmental probe, the government did not reinstate him.

Then in January 2020, he was arrested in Mumbai for his anti- CAA speech. He has been jailed since then.