The Allahabad High Court last week granted bail to Dr Kafeel Ahmed Khan, one of the nine people accused in the BRD Medical College tragedy that killed hundreds of children in the hometown of Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, last year.
Dr Khan, who was the nodal officer of pediatrics department at the time of the tragedy, was widely hailed as a hero for saving hundreds of lives as he bought oxygen cylinders with his own money. Most of the children had died due to non-supply of oxygen at the hospital.
An exclusive expose by Janta Ka Reporter in February this year had exposed how the Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath government may have falsely implicated Dr Khan along with Dr RK Misra, the principal of the BRD College Hospital and his wife Dr Purnima Shukla.
While granting the bail to Dr Khan, even the Allahabad High Court also said that there was “no material on record, which may establish medical negligence against” him individually in connection with the death of infants in a Gorakhpur hospital last August.
A concerted social media campaign was launched few days ago with activists, fellow doctors and campaigners demanding justice for Dr Khan. In his gut-wrenching letter, penned recently, Dr Khan had described what happened at Gorakhpur hospital and why UP CM Adityanath was angry with him.
Dr Khan walked out of the jail on Saturday and met his family for the first time in more than eight months. The visuals of Dr Khan meeting his wife, child and mother among others have gone viral making everyone emotional. Dr Khan also spoke briefly to media while after his release.
A visibly exhausted Dr Khan said, “I was kept with hardcore criminals. Ironically, those people who ought to have been prosecuted were filing FIR against us.” Addressing the journalists, he said, “You were there. You saw how I was frantically running around trying to save children. Now for God sake, don’t address me as the guilty of Oxygen controversy.”