Reprieve for Dr. Kafeel. Court grants bail after 7 months
Lucknow, April 25: Seven months after he was jailed in the infamous BRD Medical College case where 31 children died overnight, Dr. Kafeel Khan was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday. While some in the media hailed him as a hero for procuring oxygen cylinders from his own personal funds to save the dying children, others have ensured he is made out as the prime accused in the death of dozens of children at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur last year.
The case came under intense media criticism especially as Gorakhpur is the Parliamentary seat of the current State Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. A single bench of Justice Yashwant Verma while granting bail said since the charge sheet has already been filed in the case there was no need of custody.
Dr. Khan’s family had applied for bail on six different occasions in the past seven months, all of which were rejected.
The Gorakhpur Police have already dropped charges of corruption and private practice against Kafeel, who is one of the nine accused in the BRD Medical College case that left many dead allegedly due to oxygen shortage in the children’s ward.
Kafeel, the head of the encephalitis ward and an assistant professor at the paediatrics department, was removed from the post of the nodal officer at the National Health Mission in the wake of deaths.
Khan has been charged under Sections 120-B, 308 and 409 of the IPC by the office of DG Medical Education.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi last week, Dr. Shabista Khan, the wife of Dr. Kafeel Khan, alleged that the prison authorities were not giving proper medical care to her husband. Citing her husband’s ailing health, Dr. Shabista urged the government to consider his deteriorating condition as an emergency and grant him bail on medical grounds.
“My husband is a heart patient, his blood pressure is running high, he is also suffering from depression. Who will bear the responsibility if something happens to him,” asked Dr. Shabista Khan.
Speaking to media during his visit to district hospital, Kafeel said, “I am being framed by administration. A doctor is falsely accused.”
