JAIPUR: A day after his release from prison on the orders of the Allahabad High Court, Kafeel Khan arrived in Jaipur with family on the promise of a safe haven.
The UP doctor was jailed under the tough National Security Act (NSA) for an alleged speech against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, was freed from a jail in Mathura on Wednesday.
In a press meet, Dr. Kafeel Khan confessed that though the court had also dropped all charges against him under the National Security Act (NSA), his decision to come to Jaipur, instead of going to his home-town Gorakhpur, had been prompted over the fear that the Yogi Adiyanath-led government in UP may once again imprison him under some fictitious case.
Despite suffering a harrowing prison term, Dr. Khan spoke without a trace of bitterness against anybody. However, he revealed that the decision to come to Jaipur for a safe stay had been on the advice of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
"Priyanka Gandhi had called me and advised me to come and stay in Rajasthan and we will give you a safe place. She said UP government may try and implicate you in some other case and it is not safe to be there. As such I have decided to stay away from UP," said Dr.Khan.
"Since Bharatpur is adjacent to Mathura, I decided to come here. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra helped me a lot. Since there is a Congress government in Rajasthan, I feel I will be safe here. My family also feel it will be safer for us to stay here because in past seven-and-half months I have suffered a lot of mental harassment and physical torture"
Allahabad High Court had termed his jail sentence as a “conspiracy to defame the good doctor” wherein the Aligarh District Magistrate had “misused the powers bestowed by the Indian Legal System.
Kafeel said he was told not to speak against the government. "I will send off a letter to my CM (Yogi Adityanath) and request him to reinstate me in my job and I would like to be useful in helping my state tonight Corona crises," Dr. Khan said.