Dr Kafeel Khan wrote a letter to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, requesting his reinstatement to serve the covid patients during the pandemic.
Dr Khan was suspended from Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College after several children died there in 2017, apparently due to the lack of oxygen cylinders at the government hospital. A departmental inquiry later cleared Khan of most of the charges, but he found himself in trouble for an allegedly provocative speech in Aligarh during last December’s protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
In his letter to CM Adityanath, Dr Khan said that “the second wave of Coronavirus has wreaked havoc in the whole of India. Despite the departmental action on the other doctors, their suspension has been terminated and service has been restored. On this basis, my suspension should also end. Give me an opportunity to serve the country in this epidemic, no matter even if you suspend again after the pandemic.”
Currently, Dr Khan is volunteering with a team of doctors under the banner “Doctors on Road” to spread Covid-19 awareness among the marginalised in the hinterlands to aid the fight against the deadly pandemic.
Referring to former BRD principal Dr Rajesh Mishra and maintenance in-charge Dr Satish Kumar, Dr Khan said that the departmental action has gone against them as well, but they have been reinstated. He rued that even after writing to the Uttar Pradesh government 36 times, his suspension has not been revoked.
He also mentioned the order of Allahabad High Court in his letter that the court has freed him of the corruption charges and had also asked to consider suspension withdrawal after 90 days. “But even after 1300 days, my suspension has not been revoked. I want to serve the citizens of the country in this hour of crisis,” he wrote.
Dr Kafeel was re -arrested by UP’s Special Task Force (STF) in Mumbai, on 30th Janurary 2020 and later detained under the stringent NSA, which the Allahabad High Court ruled was illegal.