Kafeel Khan was indicted under the National Security Act for his speech against the CAA
New Delhi:
The government of Uttar Pradesh has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court order that released an accused doctor under the strict National Security Act for an alleged speech against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act .
The arrest of Kafeel Khan, the Uttar Pradesh doctor, was “illegal,” the higher court said in its order on September 1, adding that the doctor’s speech showed no effort to promote hatred or violence.
In the petition, the UP government alleged that Dr. Khan had a history of committing crimes, which resulted in disciplinary action, suspension from service, registration of police cases and indictment under the National Security Act (NSA) .
Dr. Khan was indicted under the National Security Act for his speech against the CAA in a talk at the Muslim University of Aligarh late last year. The Gorakhpur doctor was arrested on January 29. While he was first charged with allegedly promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, the charges under the NSA were later invoked after he was released on bail on February 10 of this year.
After Dr. Khan was released from a prison in Mathura, he had said that he would ask Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, to give him back his job in the state medical services.
He was suspended from Gorakhpur BRD Medical College after several children died there in 2017, apparently due to a lack of oxygen cylinders at the government hospital.
A departmental investigation later cleared Dr. Khan of most of the charges, but he found himself in trouble over the allegedly provocative speech in Aligarh about the amended citizenship law.
Introduced in 1980, the NSA authorizes the government to detain people, without being charged in court, for up to one year if they suspect they may disturb public order, endanger India’s security or its ties to foreign countries.
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