Lucknow:
The detention of Kafeel Khan, the Uttar Pradesh doctor charged under the tough National Security Act (NSA) for a speech against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA, and the extension of his detention is “illegal”, the Allahabad High Court said this morning, ordering his immediate release.
Dr Khan was charged under National Security Act for his speech against the CAA at a talk at the Aligarh Muslim University late last year. The Gorakhpur doctor was arrested on January 29 and is currently lodged in a jail in Aligarh.
The First Information Report, filed on December 13 last year, says Dr Khan made an attempt to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere at the university and disturb communal harmony.
“A complete reading of the speech prima facie does not disclose any effort to promote hatred or violence. It also no where threatens peace and tranquility of the city of Aligarh,” the high court said today. “It appears that the District Magistrate had selective reading and selective mention for few phrases from the speech ignoring its true intent,” the court said.
Introduced in 1980, the strict National Security Act empowers the government to detain people, without being charged in court, for up to a year if they suspect that they could disrupt public order, endanger the security of India or its ties with foreign countries.
Dr Khan was suspended, arrested and jailed for his alleged role in the deaths of over 60 children at a government hospital in Gorakhpur due to alleged oxygen shortage in 2017. In September last year, a UP government report cleared him of all major accusations.
The Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA promises citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, making religion a test of Indian nationality for the first time.
While critics say the law can be used to persecute Muslims in combination with the planned National Register of Citizens (NRC), the government says the law will help those who have faced religious persecution in the three neighbouring countries.
