New Delhi: The Allahabad High Court has asked the Centre and the state governments to file a reply on a petition demanding the release of Dr Kafeel Khan, jailed under NSA for allegedly making inflammatory speeches during CAA protests.
A bench of Justices Manoj Mishra and Deepak Verma has passed the order on a petition filed by Nuzhat Parveen, the mother of Dr Khan. The court fixed August 19 as the next date of hearing.
According to the petitioner, Dr Kafeel Khan was granted bail by a competent court and should have been released on bail. However, he was not released for four days and later the National Security Act was imposed on him. Therefore, his custody is illegal. In this petition, Dr Khan has challenged the act of keeping him in custody for four days, despite getting bail in all the cases before the NSA was imposed.
Dr Khan has been in jail since January 29, 2020 after allegedly making inflammatory speeches at Aligarh Muslim University on December 10, 2019 in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The Uttar Pradesh government considered this speech to be “provocative” and imposed NSA on him. Dr Khan came into the limelight after an accident caused by lack of oxygen at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in 2017 killed several kids.
Read Also: Allahabad HC warns state govt of strict action if Corona guidelines are not followed
Many children died due to lack of oxygen cylinders. Initially, he was appreciated for saving the lives of children by arranging oxygen cylinders in an emergency, but later they were processed with nine other doctors and staff. However, everyone got bail later.
– India Legal Bureau