Dr Kafeel Gets Big Relief from Allahabad HC in Criminal Case Over Anti-CAA Speech

New Delhi, 28 Aug 2021 [Fik/News Sources]: Dr Kafeel Khan, the suspended paediatrician at the receiving end of the Uttar Pradesh government since 2017, on Thursday got a big relief from the Allahabad High Court which quashed the entire criminal proceedings against him over a speech he had made in Aligarh in December 2019.

The court set aside the chargesheet and its cognizance order passed against Dr Kafeel by chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Aligarh in a criminal case, alleging that Dr Khan had delivered an inflammatory speech during protest against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)/National Register of Citizens (NRC) at Aligarh Muslim University.

The UP government had also invoked National Security Act against Dr Khan. However, last year the Allahabad High Court quashed the detention of Dr Khan under NSA observing that his speech was actually a call for national integration.

A First Information Report was registered against Dr Khan and subsequently he was arrested for the speech he delivered at the AMU on 12 December 2019.

While passing the order, a single judge bench of Justice Gautam Chaudhary noted that the requisite sanction was not taken by district magistrate from central and state governments under Section 196(A) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

However, he made it clear that the charge sheet and its cognisance may be taken by the court after mandatory sanction is granted by the central as well as the state governments.

The FIR under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) against him stated that his speech had “disrupted the harmony between the communities”, and that it was “also likely to create a law and order situation”.

Later on, Sections 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes) were also added to the FIR

Thereafter, a charge sheet was filed against him in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Aligarh, in March 2020.

The Court took cognizance of the charge sheet and had summoned him to face the trial in the case. Aggrieved with the same, Dr Khan had moved High Court with his Section 482 CrPC plea seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings and the cognizance order.

The plea primarily argued that prior permission of the government was not taken before the filing of a charge sheet against him.

It was argued that as per Section 196 CrPC, before taking cognizance of the offense under section 153-A, 153-B, 505(2) of the IPC, the Central Government or the State Government or the District Magistrate has to give their prior prosecution sanction for the prosecution, and such prior sanction was not taken in the present case.

Therefore, it was submitted that since such prior sanction/permission was not taken in the instant case against Dr. Kafeel, the cognizance order as well as the criminal proceedings were liable to be quashed/set aside.

Dr Khan termed the Allahabad High Court’s ruling as a “a big victory for the people of India” that “restores our faith in judiciary.” According to PTI, he said: “Yogi Adityanath government’s high-handedness towards people of Uttar Pradesh has been completely exposed by this ruling of the honorable Allahabad High Court,” he said.

“We also hope this brave judgment will give hope to all pro-democracy citizens and activists languishing in jails across India. Long live Indian democracy,” he added.

Dr Khan has spent most of the past three years shuttling between prisons. He was jailed for seven months, awaiting trial on charges of culpable homicide and negligence after more than 70 children died in August 2017 in a public hospital in Gorakhpur, UP, where he worked as a junior doctor. Eight other hospital workers, including the principal of the hospital, were also imprisoned on similar charges.

Most of the deaths were the result of the hospital’s oxygen supply being cut, allegedly because bills amounting to $100,000 (£75,000) had been unpaid, something that the government continues to deny.

On 27 September 2019, Khan was acquitted of all charges in relation to the 2017 Gorakhpur Hospital deaths. But he remains suspension as the UP government has initiated a separate disciplinary proceeding against him.