Dr Kafeel Khan’s advocate has said the Aligarh police is likely to act in a mala fide manner and take sanction for the prosecution of the doctor. “The whole basis of the case is not tenable in a court of law. The NSA has been squashed on the basis that the speech was not against communal harmony. The motive is only to harass Dr Khan. Even if this were to be challenged against in the court of law, it will have no basis,” said Manish Singh.
Dr Khan was suspended and later jailed for his alleged role in the deaths of over 60 children at a government hospital in Gorakhpur district due to alleged oxygen shortage in 2017. Later, he was jailed for an alleged inflammatory speech he gave on the subject of the Citizenship Amendment Act at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 2019. On August 26, the Allahabad High Court had quashed the entire criminal proceedings arising out of an FIR alleging that he had made an anti-national speech about the CAA and NRC at a protest meeting at Aligarh Muslim University on December 2019.
Singh said the only motive of the court was to hound Dr Khan to prevent him resume his life as before. “I will be demanding compensation for the loss of the years that he has lost as a professional and also for the damage that his personal and professional integrity has suffered,” he added. Singh said such a step was unprecedented and would serve as an example of such future cases.
“The whole basis of the case is not tenable in law”, said Singh.
An FIR was lodged against Khan under Section 153A of the IPC (promoting enmity against different religious groups) for the speech he had delivered at AMU. Later, sections pertaining to promotion of hatred and ill will against groups were also added.
Singh said the defence had only to react to what the opposite party was targeting Khan with. “The government is unlikely to stop targeting Khan. We will only react to what the government says in the court. Already, the police are spreading lies that sanctions from the state and central governments were already taken for prosecuting Khan—a blatant lie,” said Singh.