I feel really helpless in this small cage of jail not because I am being victimised again and because they slapped the NSA on me, but because I should be out serving my countrymen and saving kids’ lives. Every barrack has 125-150 inmates with four to six toilets only, so it’s obvious that everyone has to be in the queue. I have stomach pain… and the moment I’m in the toilet there are flies, mosquitoes and a stench which makes me vomit sometimes. Then there’s another queue for bathing. For lunch, I have watery dal, boiled vegetables, mainly cauliflower cabbage and radish. I swallow it with water to survive…
Due to the lockdown, we are no longer getting to meet our kin, otherwise I used to satisfy my hunger with fruits and other eatables brought by them. If the light goes off, the foul smell of urinals from the toilet is so suffocating that sometimes I feel nauseous. I try to read books but those few hours are like hell.
– A letter from the prison by Khafeel Khan on April 2020
I am grateful to the UP Special Task Force officials for not killing me in an encounter on the way from Mumbai to Mathura.
Dr Khan is a free man ‘again’ after the Allahabad high court revoked the NSA charges against him. During the past three years, Dr Khan was busy commuting between prisons and was frequently targeted because he shed light on the failures of the Government. His supporters also claim that he is a living symbol of religious oppression. Dr Khan says that it is hard to prove that he is a ‘true Indian’. He says nationality comes with birth, just like religion.
After serving seven months in prison under stringent charges of the National Security Act, Dr Kafeel Khan was released on 1 Sept 2020 at midnight. The High Court of Allahabad ordered his immediate release, stating that the UP government had framed a fictitious and fabricated case against him and had held him in prison. Khan was arrested by the Special Task Force of UP police in January while addressing students at Aligarh Muslim University on 10 December 2019 amid nationwide anti-CAA(Citizenship Amendment Act) protests.
In the speech that he delivered at Aligarh Muslim University, Dr Khan had spoken about various issues including children’s health, the declining job opportunities, and the sinking economy. He also criticised the controversial citizenship law. Khan believes that the seven months he spent in prison this year in the middle of a severe pandemic were not for his anti-CAA speech, but for revealing the reality of the country’s dysfunctional government system. He was arrested by the Special Task Force on 29 January 2020 and sent to prison. Khan had already been granted bail on 10 February 2020 before the Aligarh Court but had not been released on time. On 13 February 2020, he was charged with a crime under the National Security Act. On 12 May 2020, his detention was extended for another three months. After the release, while addressing the media Dr Khan said, “I am grateful to the UP Special Task Force officials for not killing me in an encounter on the way from Mumbai to Mathura”. He also alleged that he was mistreated in custody. The Court revoked the detention of the physician and the curious case under which he was framed as a crusader and a criminal under the National Security Act.
More than 200 health professionals had written to the UP Chief Minister requesting justice for Dr Khan and his instant release, as well as the elimination of false cases against him.
This isn’t the first time that Dr Khan was framed for a fallacious case. A series of accusations had followed him after the critical and fateful night of Gorakhpur infant deaths on 10 August 2017, where 63 infants died at the BRD Medical College where Dr Khan worked as a physician. Much of the fatalities were the result of the hospital’s oxygen supply being cut over non-payment of dues. The UP government denied the charges of deaths due to oxygen shortage. On 13 August 2017, he was expelled as nodal officer in charge of the Encephalitis ward on charges of duty failure. On 2 September 2017, Dr Khafeel Khan was arrested. FIR was filed against Dr Khan under section 409 of IPC-Criminal breach of trust, Section 308 of IPC-Criminal conspiracy, Section 420 of IPC-Cheating and Section 15 of Indian Medical Council Act. On April 2018, the Indian Medical Association released a statement in support of Dr Khan, claiming that Khan had been framed and demanded a high-level investigation on the issue. More than 200 health professionals had written to the UP Chief Minister requesting justice for Dr Khan and his instant release, as well as the elimination of false cases against him. After nine months in prison, Khan was released on bail due to a lack of evidence.
Even after all this suffering, Dr Khan is planning to set up medical camps and serve the public… He stood for the public and fought for their rights. So people like him will always remain a target for Yogi’s as well as Modi’s governments.
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