Uttar Pradesh: Kafeel Khan’s detention under NSA extended for three months

AGRA: The Uttar Pradesh government has extended detention of jailed pediatrician Dr Kafeel Khan under the National Security Act (NSA) for the third time for a period of three more months.
According to the orders issued by the home department, Kafeel’s detention will continue till November 13. He is currently lodged in Mathura jail. Recently, the Supreme Court had also directed the high court to dispose of his habeas corpus petition, filed by Dr Kafeel Khan’s mother Nuzhat Parveen, within 15 days.
The Allahabad high court is scheduled to hear his plea for release on August 19.
Khan has been behind bars since January 29 after a speech he had delivered at Aligarh Muslim University during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests was deemed “provocative” by the UP government, which booked him under the National Security Act (NSA) hours after he had got bail in the case on February 10. Detention under NSA allows the state to detain a person for up to 12 months, which can be extended if the state finds “fresh evidence”.
Several appeals for Dr Khan’s release have been made by his family members on social media. Khan was in the news recently after a letter he wrote about the conditions of the prison in Mathura was shared on social media. The four-page letter, purportedly written by him in June, spoke of the “hellish” conditions of his barracks, where 150 inmates were sharing a toilet.
Earlier, in March, just as the magnitude of Covid-19 was hitting governments across the world, he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting that he be allowed to use his medical expertise to help in the fight against the pandemic. “I have conducted 103 free medical camps since out of jail after the BRD oxygen tragedy examining over 50,000 children/patients all over India...I feel I could be of some help in curtailing this disease,” he had written.
The deaths of nearly 60 children at the state-run BRD Hospital in Gorakhpur due to oxygen shortage was the flashpoint which had put Dr Khan on what was to be a recurring firing line. He was charged with medical negligence and dereliction of duty but absolved after two years — he had spent nine months behind bars at the time. Then in January this year, he was arrested in Mumbai for his anti-CAA speech. He has been behind bars since then.