The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday ordered the immediate release and the dropping of stringent National Security Act (NSA) charges against Dr. Kafeel Khan.
The UP Government led by Yogi Adityanath had invoked NSA earlier this year over an alleged inflammatory speech by him against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Commenting on his release, prominent journalist Rohini Singh took to twitter and wrote, “The court has ordered that NSA charges against Dr Kafeel Khan be dropped. But Dr Khan has already spent more than 200 days in jail. Everyone knew the case against him was a fraud one. His only ‘crime’ was that he was Muslim and spoke out against a vindictive regime.”
Khan had been arrested in January for delivering the speech at Aligarh Muslim University on December 10, 2019, The NSA charges were invoked against him on February 13, 2020, on the orders of the Aligarh District Magistrate.
On August 16, his detention under NSA was extended for the second time by three months,
The high court on Tuesday also declared the extension of his detention as illegal and ordered his immediate release from the Mathura jail were he is currently lodged under illegal detention.
Under the NSA, people can be detained without a charge for up to 12 months if authorities are satisfied that they are threat to the national security or law and order.
Dr Kafeekl Khan in August 2017 was in the news when several children died at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, where he worked as a paediatrician.
Though he was later given a clean chit in a departmental probe, the government did not reinstate him.