Dr. Kafeel Khan

If a common man raises his voice against the system in our country, we all know how system will crush him. We have seen this happening with RTI activist and whistle blowers. But for a common man only does, what he is anyway supposed to be doing. If he merely does his job well, stays true to his duty and does not interfere in the system at all, to what extent can system still suppress him? You cannot even imagine. Dr. Kafeel Khan is eloquent example of this. You all may know him and his story but in short. Today I am discussing in brief, what happened with him and how UP government used him as escape goat.

Before 2017, no one in media knew Dr. Kafeel Khan. He was a common doctor working in a common hospital- BRD media college. Just like the thousands of doctors who work in different hospitals across the country today. But on 10th of August 2017 something happened which changed his entire life.

On the night of August 10, an alarm sounded in hospital. There was an oxygen shortage in Central oxygen pipeline. The hospital staff knew that they could use emergency cylinders, but they would be sufficient only for two hours. At that time Dr. Kafeel, the head of encephalitis ward and he knew that the critically ill children, who were victim of encephalitis, could not stay alive without an oxygen supply. He had to arrange oxygen cylinders from somewhere.

He then decided in that critical moment, that he would procure the oxygen cylinder from his friend's private nursing home in order to save children's life. He did several trips to bring oxygen cylinders to hospital. In total, he collected 12 oxygen cylinders. That night 23 children lost their live due to lack of oxygen. It is believed that had not been Khan's work, many more children would have lost their lives. Due to this Dr. Khan who acted as a hero, was praised by media and people but government was irritated by him because the fact of matter is that as soon as this news leaked into the media, the blame was attributed to UP government and CM of Uttar Pradesh - Yogi Adityanath because this was a state government run hospital, which was not paying bills on time. Having not been paid on time, the oxygen supplies had to disconnect their oxygen supply due to which that situation arose. There was no maintenance and management of this hospital was extremely poor.

It is alleged that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was furious worn Dr. Kafeel Khan after this incident. Allegedly, he thought that Dr. Kafeel had leaked this news to the media which led to the news spreading like wildfire and all the blame was being put on him. It is also alleged that he had said to Dr. Kafeel "So you think by arranging cylinders you will become a hero ? I will see it".

On 13 August 2017, Dr. Kafeel was removed from his position on charges of "carrying out private practice". On the same day, a propaganda campaign against him started in full swing on the social media to defame him.
On 14th August, RTI activist Sanjay Sharma had filed a RTI seeking answers from the government regarding this incident.

On 15th August several doctors from AIIMS stood in support of Dr. Kafeel alleging that he had been made a "scapegoat" In the tragic incident. The government is looking for someone to put the blame on in order to save its own image and so they caught hold of Dr. Kafeel to put the blame on.

On 23rd August 2017 a FIR was filed against Dr. Kafeel, on 2nd September 2017 he was arrested on non bailable warrant and in November 2017 police filed a charge sheet against him.

6 months later, on 10th April 2018 Indian Medical Association stand in support of Dr. Kafeel Khan and expresses solidarity and India Medical Association says that the case against Dr. Kafeel is a conspiracy and he is deliberately being accused and he is not at fault here.

On 18 April 2018 Dr. Kafeel wrote a 10 page long letter from jail explaining what happened on that night and he is being made a scapegoat. He is languishing in jail since 7 months just for saving the lives of those children. In the past 7 month, the family of Dr. Kafeel had tried for bail 6 times but no result came out.

Finally on 25 April 2018 the Allahabad High Court granted bail to Dr. Kafeel and also said that there was no need for custody. The Allahabad High Court ruled that there is no evidence of medical negligence against Dr. Kafeel Khan. That is, there is no evidence that he did something wrong that night.
If you are thinking that this is the end of our story and it is a happy ending, then wait our story has just began.
On 11th June 2018 there was life threatening attack on brother of Dr. Kafeel Khan. He was shot at by some unidentified men on bike but fortunately his life was saved.

By July 2018, it was almost one complete year since he had lost his job. After that, he never got his job back. He came out publicly and said in the media that he was going bankrupt and he did not have enough money to run his family.
In August 2018, came in the reply to the RTI filed by RTI activist Sanjay Sharma and the reply stated what we already knew, that there was shortage of oxygen that night which claimed lives of children and Dr. Kafeel arranged for 4 oxygen cylinder on his own to save the lives of children.

On 22nd September 2018, the children in a hospital of Baraich district in Uttar Pradesh developed a mystery fever. Dr. Kafeel reached there to help the children. Just before he was going to a dress media, the police arrested him. Just a day after getting bail, on 24th September 2018 he was again arrested by Gorakhpur police and this time it was said that he was arrested for fraud. The fraud, as alleged by Gorakhpur police was that he had opened a bank account using fake documents and transaction worth 2 crore were made in that bank account. All this happened in 2009. He was now arrested in this case.

He was again granted bail. 6 months later in March 2019, the Allahabad High Court gave a period of 3 month to Yogi Aadityanath Government to wrap up the ongoing enquiry against Dr. Kafeel Khan. Two year after Gorakhpur incident, on 27 September 2019, it came on the news that the four ongoing charges against Dr. Kafeel, all these charge against him have been absolved by an enquiry and that he was given a clean chit.

A few hours after this, the UP government said, it would be wrong to presume that he was given a clean chit. Just a few days later on 4th October 2018, the UP government launched a new departmental investigation against him once again. This time he reason is for spreading incorrect information about the enquiry report and for making "anti - government remarks during his suspension”. Seems like the previous reason did not find a way to go ahead, so new reasons were thought of.

On 13th December 2019, Dr. Kafeel gave a speech in AMU University on the Citizenship Amendment Act. Irrespective of whether you support this act or not, you should concede one thing, that every person has the right, the freedom of speech to support this act or oppose it. Every person has his own free will and they can express their opinion.

In this speech he said "Mota Bhai" Is teaching everyone to become Hindu or Muslim but not human being. He does not believe in Constitution. The Citizenship Amendment Bill would make Muslims a second category citizen and subsequently, they will be harassed with the implementation of NRC. This is what he said in his speech. The FIR was lodged on the basis that he was making attempts to disturb communal harmony and that he was promoting enmity between Hindu and Muslim.

On 30th January 2020, he was again arrested by the police due to his speech. He stayed in jail for 10 days and on 10th February, he was granted bail by Aligarh Cheif Judicial Magistrate, but he was not releases from the jail for the next 3 days despite three release order from the magistrate.

13th February 2020 the bail order has come from the judiciary but the government comes up with another reason to keep him in jail. He was charged under NSA (National Security Act). Under NSA, a detention order was passed against him saying that it was necessary to keep him in jail to "prevent from engaging in activities that are prejudicial to the maintenance of public order". Basically, he was being kept in jail because if released, it is argued, that the public order would get disrupted.

If you are not aware. NSA was brought in by Indira Gandhi Government in 1980, which give the power to the government to keep anyone under preventive detention if the government felt that person is a threat to national security. This act is extremely controversial, because as pointed out repeatedly, it curtsies the right of the people and gives arbitrary power to government. The limit of preventive detention is 3 months under NSA but this limit can be extended up to 12 months by renewal. Under NSA even a lawyer is not allowed to the person in trail.

Moving on, on 19th March 2020 Dr. Kafeel Khan wrote a letter to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi from jail. He requested that he should be released so that he could lend his energies to the fight against covid-19 pandemic. Since he was a doctor and the country is in need of doctor at this moment.

On 13th May 2020, the 3 month limit under NSA was about to get over. Days before the detention was to get over, the limit was extended by another three months by UP government so that Dr. Kafeel was not able to get out of during this pandemic.

On 6th July 2020 Dr. Kafeel wrote other letter from jail telling that the jail he was kept in at Mathura was in such a terrible and deplorable condition that it was almost a "living hell". He claimed that about 150 imamate are sharing one toilet due to which the toilet Stinks of urine. There are electricity cuts and the heat in jail is is unbearable.
On 27 July 2020 the Allahabad High Court differs the date of his hearing to 5th August 2020.
Finally on September 1st, the Allahabad High Court quashed Dr. Kafeel's detention under NSA and ordered his immediate release.

So, this was the happy ending of story. So you can think how a common man is crushed by system who is doing is job in order to keep the system’s image clean. Hope this will never happen with anyone else. Comment and let us know how to you feel after listening stories like this and can be done in order to help someone if he/she is caught in this type of trouble.