Supreme Court orders UP government to pay dues to Dr Khan

In what is being seen as a source of relief for Gorakhpur’s Dr Kafeel Khan and his family, a double bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Indira Banerjee has ordered timely conclusion of the enquiry regarding his suspension. Dr. Kafeel Khan- the suspended Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics, at BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur- and further directed the Yogi Govt. to pay all the subsistence allowance to Dr. Kafeel Khan pending since his suspension.

The Allahabad High Court on 7th March, 2019, had asked the UP government to conclude departmental inquiry against Dr Khan within 90 days. The Supreme Court has honoured this order by the Allahabad HC.
Dr. Kafeel Khan has been suspended since 2nd September, 2017. According to him, the reason the government is delaying the departmental inquiry is that ‘it is protecting the real perpetrators of the BRD Oxygen tragedy. The Yogi government has been sitting on it for more than 20 months, because it does not want to expose the corrupt officers, who did not make the timely payment to the gas supplying agency’. He names the District Magistrate, DGME, and both the health ministers as the main culprits. He says that he will continue fighting till the perpetrators of this crime are brought to justice.

Dr. Kafeel Khan was represented before the Court by Senior Advocate Ms. Meenakshi Arora and Advocate on Record Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi,who did the work pro-bono. He says that he is thankful to the Hon’ble Supreme Court and the judges for this order, and also adds that the credit for this goes to the advocates- Ms Arora, and Mr Ayyubi- who worked on this case pro-bono. He says ‘this couldn’t have been made possible without their efforts. I would also like to thank all my supporters who contributed to my crowdfunding campaign that I had launched on Crowdnewsing a year ago to help sustain myself. Your love and support kept me going. I have firm belief in the judicial system of India, and I am hopeful of a positive outcome in this case’.

Dr. Kafeel Khan is the suspended Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics, at BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur. When, in 2017, large number of child deaths occurred in the BRD hospital at Gorakhpur due to lack of Oxygen, Dr. Kafeel Khan, prevented further deaths by paying for Oxygen cylinders out of his own pocket. To hide its incompetence, the Yogi government scapegoated Dr. Khan, and he was forced to spend many months in jail.