Charges against doctor diluted

Lucknow: In a major volte face, the Gorakhpur police have decided to withdraw corruption charges against the BRD Medical College nodal officer Dr Kafeel Khan, who is one of the nine accused in the tragedy in which 30 children died in August.

The police have also not been able to confirm that Dr Kafeel Khan was involved in private practice and was working at his wife’s nursing home, as alleged earlier.

Dr Khan was earlier accused of accepting gratification in the FIR lodged on August 23.

In the chargesheet, the police have dropped charges under Prevention of Corruption Act against  Dr Khan. Chargesheet against seven accused had been filed in October while that against Dr Khan and former principal Dr Rajiv Misra had been pending since. According to sources, the department evaluated all legal options and then decided to remove section 8 of Prevention of Corruption Act and section 66 under Information Technology Act while filing the chargesheet against Dr Khan. The doctor was accused of using social media to gain sympathy and hence IT Act was initially slapped. In another twist, section 15 of Indian Medical Council Act that restricts registered state medical practitioner to hold another office, was also scrapped from the chargesheet. The same officer, though, found enough material evidence to retain Section 7 read with section 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act against Dr Misra.