After More Than 7 Months in Jail, Dr Kafeel Khan Gets Bail From Allahabad High Court

Lucknow: After spending more than seven months in jail, Dr Kafeel Khan, prime accused in the death of dozens of children at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur last year, was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday.

The single bench of Justice Yashwant Verma while granting bail said since the chargesheet has already been filed in the case there was no need of custody.

Dr Khan’s family had applied for bail on six different occasions in the past seven months.

The Gorakhpur Police have already dropped charges of corruption and private practice against Kafeel, who is one of the nine accused in the BRD Medical College case that left many dead allegedly due to oxygen shortage in the children’s ward.

Kafeel, the head of the encephalitis ward and an assistant professor at the paediatrics department, was removed from the post of the nodal officer at the National Health Mission in the wake of deaths.

Khan has been charged under Sections 120-B, 308 and 409 of the IPC by the office of DG Medical Education.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi last week, Dr Shabista Khan, the wife of Dr Kafeel Khan, alleged that the prison authorities were not giving proper medical care to her husband. Citing her husband’s ailing health, Dr Shabista urged the government to consider his deteriorating condition as an emergency and grant him bail on medical grounds.

“My husband is a heart patient, his blood pressure is running high, he is also suffering from depression. Who will bear the responsibility if something happens to him,” asked Dr Shabista Khan.

Speaking to media during his visit to district hospital, Kafeel said, “I am being framed by administration. A doctor is falsely accused.”

In December last year, Kafeel's mother, Nuzhat Parveen had met Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath during a Janta Darbar held in Gorakhpur and demanded justice for her son.

Parveen told Adityanath that her family was going through a difficult time and that the CM must help them.

“My son was arrested over the BRD Medical College incident while he was doing his duty because a conspiracy was hatched against him. I have requested CM Yogi Adityanath and he has assured me to look into the case,” said Nuzhat Parveen.