NSA rap against Dr Kafeel Khan for anti-CAA speech at AMU

Lucknow: The UP police have slapped National Security Act (NSA) charges against Dr Kafeel Khan for allegedly delivering a speech at Aligarh Muslim University against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) back in December.

Dr Khan has been in the Mathura jail despite a bail granted to him in connection with the speech.

“The NSA has been slapped against Dr Kafeel Khan. He will remain in jail,” Aligarh senior superintendent of police Akash Kulhari told PTI.

The NSA allows preventive detention of a person for months if the authorities are satisfied that he is a threat to national security or law and order.

Dr Khan was arrested by the UP Special Task Force from Mumbai on January 29 in connection with the speech he had delivered during an anti-CAA protest at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on December 12.

A case was registered against him at the Civil Lines police station in Aligarh citing the charge of promoting enmity between different religions. After his arrest, Dr Khan was brought to Aligarh and then immediately shifted to the district jail in Mathura.

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 quarters of the city. Dr Khan's presence in Aligarh jail could have worsened the law-and-order situation in the city, the police had said.

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.

About two years later, a state government probe cleared Khan of all major charges, prompting him to seek an apology from the Yogi Adityanath government.