Kafeel’s elder brother ‘shot at’ in Gorakhpur

GORAKHPUR: The brother of Kafeel Khan, a doctor who is out on bail after being accused in last year’s Gorakhpur hospital tragedy, was allegedly shot at by unidentified men in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur on Sunday night.

Kashif Jameel, an engineer by profession, allegedly sustained three bullet injuries in his upper arm, chin and neck. He was admitted to a private hospital where doctors said he was out of danger. “The matter is being probed. We have received the complaint and an FIR will be lodged,” said Gorakhnath station house officer Ramesh Shukla.

“My brother has been shot at by unidentified bike-borne mis- creants. I have always said that they would try to kill us,” Kafeel said in a message on social media, without elaborating. No response from the state government was immediately available.

Khan is out on bail after spending seven months in jail in connection with the deaths of 30 infants within a span of two days allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur in August last year.

Khan, then a nodal officer of the National Rural Health Mission, was also the in-charge of the paediatric wing at the hospital, and was charged with criminal conspiracy and breach of trust.

The government had blamed acute encephalitis syndrome for the deaths of the children.