What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
NEW DELHI: Dr. Kafeel Khan, whose arrest by the UP Police for the 2017 Gorakhpur hospital tragedy and the 2020 anti-CAA speech was termed as a “witch hunt” by his family and Opposition parties, has, in his new book, ruled out any communal angle to the Yogi government’s actions against him.
Initially hailed as a “hero” for arranging hundreds of oxygen cylinders when BRD Medical College and Hospital ran out of lifesaving gas in August 2017 but later suspended on charge of corruption and medical negligence, Khan said he has written the book, ‘The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy’, to bring the account of the families of 81 people who lost their near and dear ones due to oxygen shortage.
The Hindi version of the book was recently released by former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, from whose Samajwadi Party Khan unsuccessfully contested MLC elections earlier this year.
In an interview with The New Indian, Dr. Khan, who now lives in Jaipur in a secured accommodation arranged by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, said his life has been turned upside down by CM Yogi Adityanath in a bid to save the real culprits – who he has named in his book.
“I am the punching bag for the Yogi government. I feel the souls of the victim still haunt the CM and since he cannot take action against the real culprits due to political compulsions, he came after me,” Khan told said at the Delhi residence of his cousin where he stays while transiting from Jaipur to Gorakhpur.
“But if you ask me if I am being harassed because of my religion, I would say no. If any Hindu, Jain, or Christian doctor would have been at my place, he would be treated in the same way,” he continued.
“He (CM Yogi Adityanath) did this to save his ministers who demanded a 10 percent commission from the oxygen suppliers for clearing its pending dues.”
The oxygen supplier firm, Pushpa Sales, had alleged to have written several letters to the then health minister and senior government officers seeking clearance of its pending bill before it stopped the supply to the hospital, causing the deaths of over 60 infants.
Dr. Khan’s book seeks to give details on how the tragedy unfolded – from red-flagging oxygen shortage by the hospital authorities and a frantic midnight run to arrange oxygen cylinders by a team of junior doctors led by him to his jail journeys and court battles.
“It was a man-made massacre and I have been made a scapegoat. The families of those 81 victims are still awaiting justice even as the real culprits – government officials and politicians – go scot-free. I have been cleared of all charges leveled against me so far by the courts and the UP government itself but still – here I am – terminated from service and wandering around jobless,” he said.
Khan’s plea challenging his termination is pending before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.
On his arrest by the UP Police Special Task Force from Mumbai for his alleged “provocative” speech at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) during the anti-citizenship protest in 2020, Khan said that it was an attempt to keep him behind bars as he was continuously raising the hospital issue in public. “It has the potential of damaging his elections prospects,” he claimed.
Recalling his meeting with the Chief Minister in Gorakhpur days after he made national headlines for his “heroic” acts, he said, “That meeting was a turning point of my life. Brimming with a sense of pride and achievement, I had hoped to get words of appreciation from him but he spoke to me in a very disrespectful manner.”
“Tu Kafeel Khan hai? I said yes sir. Tujhe lagta hai tu kuchh jaan bacha ke hero ban jayega, dekh lunga mein tujhe (You think you would become a hero by saving some lives. I will not spare you),” he recollected the conversation.
An FIR was registered against me after that conversation and I became a villain, Dr Khan said.
