“The unfortunate death of those sixty-three kids was not a result of negligence or corruption on my part, but was actually a product of the government’s inability to clear the bills of the oxygen supplying firm,” says multiple times, in loud and evident words, Dr Kafeel Khan who today finds himself jobless despite him being successful in proving himself non-guilty.
Ranging from the District Magistrate to the Principal Secretary says Dr Khan, apparently have all declared him innocent of the accused crime. Even the High Court had stated that there was not even a shred of single evidence that could potentially put Khan under suspicious hue.
But Dr Khan was terminated, from his medical practice. To understand the complexity of the issue in question, we must first unravel the unfortunate accident and its allied controversies that took place and the journey traced by this case.
On August 22, 2017, Dr Khan along with seven of his fellow professionals was suspended from his services instantly, following the death of sixty-three children at the BRD Medical College due to the insufficiency of oxygen cylinders. Apparently, the entire burden of blame was conveniently transferred onto Dr Khan and other medicos’ heads, thereby causing their service dismissal.
Dr Khan was also put behind the bars for the period of nine months as a setback for his medical negligence and professional corruption. After his suspension and the entire court-hospital conundrum, Khan on July 31st, 2019, was suspended by the state government as he allegedly maltreated certain patients at a Bahraich based government hospital.
While he was seeking redressal from the High Court, he argued that there was no point in initiating another legal complaint against him in 2019, when the case of 2017 was still with the court, unclosed. The Allahabad high court put the UP government’s order on stay to suspend doctor Kafeel Khan for the second time in September 2021.
Withstanding the 2017 incident which took place at the BRD Hospital, an inquiry committee was set up by the UP Government, headed by the then Principal Secretary Himanshu Kumar. After a trail of investigations, Kumar in April 2018 submitted the committee’s final report which explicitly pronounced Khan as innocent of all the charges that held him guilty of medical and professional negligence, but it did mention his unlawful private medical practice.
In addition, the report also stated that Dr Khan was not the nodal medical officer in charge of the Encephalitis Ward at the BRD Hospital and that the documents which supported this, as provided by the department, were inconsistent and inadequate to have proved so. However, the disciplinary committee accepted the report and allied findings, but wasn’t satisfied with it and thus asked for a further investigation into the said matter.
“The delay in taking further action on the part of the disciplinary committee is not explained. The respondents are also obliged to justify the order of suspension, which has continued for more than four years.” Stated Dr Khan in his yet another plea submitted at the High Court, in response to the delayed disciplinary action to be taken.
On August 6, 2021, following the declaration of the conclusion of this case, Dr Khan was served with his termination order, in reacting which he said “I have no hope of getting justice in this case as some culprits constitute the government and sit high up there.” Even now, Dr Khan has not given up on him and his will to attain justice and has full trust in the Indian Justice system.
