STF arrests Gorakhpur’s Dr Kafeel Khan

GORAKHPUR: The UP Police on Saturday arrested Dr Kafeel Khan who was removed from his post in the state-run hospital here after 30 children died in two days last month, a senior official said. It is the third arrest in the case, and six others, against whom non-bailable warrants were issued after their names figured in an FIR after the deaths, remain at large.

Meanwhile, the spate of deaths continued in the staterun Baba Raghav Das Medi- cal College hospital here with 13 more children dying in 24 hours, taking the toll to 1,317 so far this year. As many as 13 children, 10 in NICU and three in general paediatric ward died in the past 24 hours, the newly-appointed principal of the college Dr PK Singh said on Saturday.

The Special Task Force had on August 29 arrested the former principal of the the BRD medical college, Rajiv Mishra, and his wife, Purnima Shukla, after their questioning and they were remanded to 14-day judi- cial custody on September 1. “Yes, Dr Kafeel Khan has been arrested. He was arrested by the STF from outskirts of Gorakhpur,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gorakhpur Anirudh Sidhartha Pankaj confirmed on Saturday.

Khan was the nodal officer of the 100-bed AES ward at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College and was removed following the deaths on August 10 and August 11. The police had earlier gone to Khan's residence to quiz him but did not find him there.