Dr Kafeel Khan, Accused in Gorakhpur BRD Hospital Deaths Case, Gets Bail
The Allahabad High Court, while hearing his bail plea on Thursday, said Khan should be released as the police has already filed its chargesheet in the case.
Lucknow, April 25: Dr Kafeel Khan, arrested in connection to the death of over 60 children at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Hospital last year due to lack of liquid oxygen, has been granted bail.
The Allahabad High Court, while hearing his bail plea on Thursday, said Khan should be released as the police has already filed its chargesheet in the case. His release comes a week after he wrote a letter from inside the jail premises, accusing the authorities of deliberately framing him in the case.
Khan, who was posted at the paediatric ward of the BRD hospital in August last year, had arranged for 250 oxygen cylinders on the night when the supply was cut-off by the liquid oxygen suppliers alleging lack of payment.
While Khan was earlier hailed as a "hero" for saving scores of lives by arranging the cylinders under his private capacity, he was arrested within a couple of days on charges of siphoning off the oxygen cylinders which were officially supplied to the hospital.
According to the accused doctor, he is being "framed" on the suspicion that he had called the media on the unfateful night to draw flak towards the state government.
"Yogiji was angry because – how this incident came into the media. I swear to my Allah, I did not inform any media person that night. They were already there that night itself," he said in the letter which he handed over to his wife last week.
Further narrating the details of his interaction with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Khan had said, CM Adityanath asked: "'So, you are Dr Kafeel? You arranged cylinders?' I was like, 'Yes sir'. He got angry: 'So you think by arranging cylinders, you became a hero? I'll see about that'."
As per the police chargesheet, Khan has booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The charges of corruption levelled against him have, however, been dropped due to lack of evidence.
The Indian Medical Association, along with the Jan Swasthya Yojana, had appealed the government to not to use Khan as a "scapegoat". The deaths at BRD Medical College were caused due to governmental failure, including administrative slack and corruption, said IMA Secretary Dr R P Shukla.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 25, 2018 04:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).