LUCKNOW: The chances for Dr Kafeel Khan to walk free from Mathura jail ended on Friday as UP police invoked National Security Act (NSA) against him over his alleged inflammatory speech at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests on December 12, 2019.
The UP STF had arrested the doctor from Mumbai on January 29 after an FIR charging him with spreading enmity between the people of two different faiths through his provocative and inflammatory speeches at AMU was filed.
However, Dr Khan was granted bail on Monday after he furnished a bail bond of Rs 60,000 with the condition of not repeating the crime again. But after four days of getting bail, he continued to languish in Mathura jail.
"NSA has been slapped against Dr Kafeel Khan. He will remain in jail," said Aligarh SSP Akash Kulhari while interacting with media persons.
Under the provisions of NSA, the accused faces preventive detention for months if the authorities are satisfied that the person is a threat to national security or law and order.
"We got to know today morning that NSA has been slapped on Dr Kafeel and now will not be coming out of jail soon. He is being targeted at the behest of the state government," Khan's brother Adeel Shab claimed.
A special messenger was sent by the Chief Judicial Magistrate to the jail on February 13 to expedite the release process, after Khan’s family approached CJM Court in Aligarh over the delay in his release.
Suspended paediatrician of BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, Dr Khan was arrested as he was proceeding to Mumbai Bagh protests on January 29 where the women protesters started an indefinite stir against the CAA, on the lines of Delhi's Shaheen Bagh.
After his arrest in Mumbai, Dr Khan was brought to Aligarh, from where he was immediately shifted to the district jail in neighbouring Mathura. According to the police, this was done as a precautionary measure in view of the anti-CAA protests on the AMU campus and at the Eidgah grounds in the old city.
Police had said that the Dr Khan's presence in the Aligarh jail could have aggravated the law and order situation in the city.
The doctor was earlier arrested for his alleged role in the death of over 60 children within a week at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in August 2017. Short supply of oxygen at the children's ward was blamed at that time for the deaths. However, he was absolved of some of the charges levelled against him in BRD Medical college case last year.