NSA slapped on UP's Dr Kafeel Khan

Lucknow: The stringent National Security Act (NSA) has been slapped on Dr Kafeel Khan, who was jailed in 2017 after 60 children died at a Gorakhpur hospital but acquitted later, for hate speech at the Aligarh Muslim University. In his order, the Aligarh district magistrate said the speech was a 'precursor' to the rampant violence and stone pelting that the campus witnessed on December 15. Khan was arrested by a UP Special Task Force in Mumbai on January 29 when he had arrived there to participate in an anti-CAA protest. He was lodged in a Mathura jail.

“The court order came on Monday but he wasn’t released even after a delay of 72 hours. We then filed a contempt of court petition at the CGM court in Aligarh and got a special order for his release. We were first told he would be released on Thursday late night, then that he would be released Friday early morning to avoid media attention. At around 9 am, we were told that he has been slapped with NSA and will continue to be in jail,” Khan’s brother Adeel told ET over the phone.

ET has seen the NSA order passed by the Aligarh DM Chandra Bhushan Singh. The order says his remarks that “Mota Bhai” is converting Muslims into “second class citizens” with the passage of CAA and then NRC “encouraged” students to carry out violent protests, which “disturbed public order in the city and created an atmosphere of fear and insecurity within the citizens of Aligarh”. Adeel, however has alleged that the UP government is using the speech as a pretext to keep Khan locked up for “providing actual data regarding deaths taking place due to Japanese Encephalitis in the Gorakhpur BRD Hospital”.