Kafeel Khan, a doctor from Uttar Pradesh, has been booked under the National Security Act (NSA). He had been lodged in Mathura jail for his alleged anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) speech at Aligarh Muslim University on December 12, 2019,
What is the NSA? The National Security Act allows for the preventive detention of individuals, for a maximum of 12 months, if the authorities are satisfied that the person is a ‘threat’ to national security or law and order.
“The NSA has been slapped on Dr. Kafeel. He will remain in jail,” Aligarh senior superintendent of police, Akash Kulhari, told PTI. His family has also confirmed the same.
“We got to know on Friday morning that NSA has been slapped on Kafeel and now he will not be coming out of jail soon. This is simply unacceptable. He is being targeted at the behest of the state government,” said his brother Adeel Khan, as reported by Hindustan Times.
Dr. Arvind, SP crime, said that there were “sufficient grounds” to book the doctor under the Act. Dr Kafeel Khan had been arrested for allegedly delivering a ‘controversial’ speech during Anti-CAA protests, on December 12, at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Even after he was granted bail on Monday, his family members claimed on Thursday that he was yet to be released.
The doctor had been arrested by the UP Special Task Force, from Mumbai, on January 29, for participating in an anti-CAA protest at AMU. According to the FIR, he was ‘accused’ of ‘provoking the religious sentiments of Muslim students of AMU’ while he was addressing a gathering of around 600 students there on December 12, on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
After his arrest in Mumbai, Dr Khan had been brought to Aligarh, after which he was shifted to the district jail in Mathura. According to police, this was done as a ‘precautionary measure’ because of the anti-CAA protests on the AMU campus and at the Eidgah grounds in the old city. “Police had said that Dr Khan’s presence in the Aligarh jail could have aggravated the law and order situation in the city,” according to India Today.
It is pertinent to know that the suspended pediatric doctor Kafeel Khan was earlier arrested for his alleged role in the death of over 60 children, in one week, at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in August 2017.
It was alleged that a short supply of oxygen at the children’s ward was because of him, while he said that he ordered oxygen cylinders for the hospital with his own money to save the children.
About two years later, a state government probe cleared Khan of all major charges. BJP leader- cum-actor Paresh Rawal had even apologised to Dr. Kafil for his tweet against Kafeel Khan.
Dr Khan has been vocal in criticising the Yogi Adityanath government for its failures.