HC SEEKS STATE GOVT’S STAND ON KAFEEL’S PLEA TO QUASH CHARGE SHEET, CASE

PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court on Tuesday asked the state government to apprise it (the court) of the government’s stand on a petition moved by Dr Kafeel Khan seeking to quash the charge sheet and criminal case against him for his alleged inflammatory speech delivered at Aligarh Muslim University in December 2019.

Justice JJ Munir passed the order on a petition filed by Dr Kafeel Khan after hearing his counsel.

The court directed state government counsel to apprise it on April 6, which was fixed as the next date of hearing in the case.

Dr Khan had challenged the order passed by the chief judicial magistrate, Aligarh, taking cognizance of the charge sheet for the alleged offences under Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 153-B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) and 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or illwill between classes) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Dr Kafeel Khan had addressed a rally at AMU on December 12, 2019 in the backdrop of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (anti-CAA) protests. Later, on February 13, 2020, the National Security Act (NSA) was imposed on him.

On September 1, 2020, the Allahabad high court set aside the detention of Dr Kafeel Khan under the NSA and had directed the state government to immediately release him.

The state government challenged the high court order before the Supreme Court but the apex court had refused to interfere in the matter.

Dr Kafeel Khan was first in the news after the 2017 oxygen tragedy at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College in which several children had died allegedly due to lack of oxygen cylinders. While initially he was hailed as a saviour of the children for arranging emergency oxygen cylinders, he later faced action.