Kafeel Khan sent in judicial custody for AMU speech, transferred to Mathura jail

An FIR was lodged against Khan a day after he made an allegedly inflammatory speech at a protest rally in AMU. According to the FIR, the UP Police accused Khan of “sowing seeds of discord and disharmony towards other religious communities” among 600 Muslim students whom he addressed at the University’s Bab-e-Syed Gate on December 12 at 6:30 pm.

He was initially sent to the Aligarh jail, but was then transferred to Mathura jail within an hour, an official told news agency PTI.

Khan was arrested at Mumbai airport by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Task Force (STF) immediately after his flight landed in Mumbai. He was scheduled to attend an anti-CAA and NRC agitation in Mumbai Central, where local women had staged a sit-in. He was taken back to UP by the STF on Thursday.

The police, which recorded the speech, in the FIR also accused the lecturer of making disparaging remarks towards the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and of exhorting students to fight against the central’s government’s citizenship legislation and of attempting to stoke communal tensions.

Dr Khan was suspended from Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Medical College in 2017 after a number of infants affected with Encephalitis died following the disconnection of the hospital’s oxygen supply over non-payment of dues. He was also arrested for alleged dereliction of his duties in the Encephalitis ward and for running a private practice. Last year, however, he was acquitted of all charges by the court.

(with PTI inputs)