The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Dr Kafeel Khan who has been in jail since September 2 last year over the death of children at the State-run BRD Medical College and hospital in Gorakhpur. He is accused of criminal conspiracy, attempt to commit culpable homicide and criminal breach of trust.
Khan was initially credited for having helped save many lives by going out of his way to find oxygen cylinders for the hospital when the official suppliers refused to provide them, citing non-payment of dues. This fact was well publicized in the media.
But things turned south for the doctor when CM Yogi Adityanath, who has insisted all along that inadequate oxygen cylinders were not the reason for the deaths, visited the hospital and a probe panel formed on his orders accused him of siphoning off the hospital’s oxygen cylinders to a private clinic. He was subsequently arrested.
More than 30 children died in Gorakhpur’s State-run Baba Raghav Das Hospital and Medical College on August 10 and 11, leading to a public outrage.
Many suspected that the deaths were caused due to a shortage of oxygen cylinders whose supply was cut by a private firm due to non-payment of dues amounting to Rs 68 lakh.
Earlier this month, Khan’s wife, Shabista, had released a letter to the press from her husband. In the letter, the doctor said that he had been suffering “unbearable torture and humiliation” in jail and that he and the other accused were being made “scapegoats” for an “administrative failure”.
He had held as guilty “the DM Gorakhpur, DGME (director general of medical education), and principal secretary health education” for not taking any action against 14 reminders sent by Pushpa Sales for its Rs 68 lakh dues.
“It was a total administrative failure at the higher level. They did not realise the gravity and, just to save themselves, they made us scapegoat and put us behind the bars,” he said in the letter.
He said he was forced to surrender after he and his family were hounded by the administration. The CM also had Khan removed as the head of pediatric department after the incident.