LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Dr Kafeel Ahmad Khan, who had been in jail in connection with the death of around two dozen children in a span of 24 hours due to alleged disruption in oxygen supply at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur on August 10-11, last year.
Dr Kafeel, held on September 2, last year in the case, was among eight other persons, including the then principal of BRD medical college, his wife, a few technical staff members, clerks and the director of the firm supplying oxygen. At the time of his arrest, Dr Kafeel was nodal officer of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) ward in the medical college.
While directing that Dr Kafeel Ahmad Khan be released on bail, Justice Yashwant Varma, however, imposed several conditions including that Dr Kafeel shall not tamper with the records and documents related to the case. Secondly, the court warned that he would not threaten or influence any witnesses of the case.
Earlier at one stage, his bail application was rejected by the district court, Gorakhpur. Hence he petitioned the high court seeking bail.
During the course of hearing, counsel for Dr Kafeel took the plea that he had been falsely implicated in this case and allegations against him are baseless. Therefore, he deserves to be released on bail.
However, the counsel for the state government vehemently opposed the bail plea, saying that there were sufficient evidence against him and his bail application deserved to be rejected.
Defence counsel submitted that Dr Kafeel was a renowned doctor and had been languishing in jail for the last seven months. He also argued that children in BRD Medical college had died due to snapping of oxygen supply and Dr Kafeel had no direct role in it. Hence, his plea should be considered for granting bail.
However, prosecution opposed the bail to the doctor on the ground that he was incharge of Encephalitis department and due to his negligence several children had died, as they failed to get proper treatment. Hence, he should not be granted bail.