Dr Kafeel Ahmad Khan, the paediatrician against whom the Uttar Pradesh government had issued suspension orders, has now been dismissed from service in the 2017 BRD Hospital case. Sixty-three children had died at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College in August 2017 due to an alleged shortage of oxygen.

In a video posted online, Kafeel Khan could be heard saying that he will move the high court or the Supreme Court as soon as he gets his official termination letter.

The kids died because the government failed to pay the dues of the oxygen supplier, amounting to Rs 68 lakh. Eight people were suspended, of whom seven have resumed service,” he said, adding, “The district magistrate and principal secretary submitted to the court that there was no negligence or corruption on my part.”

“On August 6, 2021, the government had submitted to the court that the second inquiry against me has been quashed. The high court had stayed the suspension order in the Bahraich case. Even after all this, I have got the news that I have been dismissed,” he said.

The medical education department is learnt to have taken action.

A BRIEF TIMELINE OF THE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST DR KAFEEL KHAN

The UP government had ordered Khan’s suspension in 2019 for the second time for allegedly forcibly treating patients at the Bahraich District Hospital and criticising government policies.

Khan was earlier removed from the paediatric department at BRD Medical College on August 13, 2017, for the deaths of the 63 infants. He was suspended on August 22 the same year. On September 3, 2017, he was arrested. He was released on bail on April 25 the next year.

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Khan was suspended for the second time on July 31, 2019, for allegedly interfering in the doctors’ duty at Bahraich Hospital.

Khan was also accused of delivering an inflammatory speech during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at AMU in 2019 and was arrested on December 13 that year. The Allahabad High Court later quashed the criminal proceedings against him in the matter.