Doctor Accused in Deaths of 63 Children, Freed from All Charges in UP
By :
Notice: Trying to get property 'fName' of non-object in /home/newobserverdawn/public_html/module/Application/view/application/index/news.phtml on line 23
Notice: Trying to get property 'lName' of non-object in /home/newobserverdawn/public_html/module/Application/view/application/index/news.phtml on line 23
The Uttar Pradesh government
has on Thursday finally freed Dr Kafeel Khan, the accused in the massive death
of over 63 children at Gorakhpur district, from all charges. Soon after the incident had come to into
light, the accused doctor was suspended, arrested and jailed for his alleged
role.
Over 63 children had died due
to alleged oxygen shortage, but Dr Khan, who was posted as a child care
specialist at the BRD Medical College, had ignored the issue despite knowing
the facts.
Altogether 63 children died in
just two days, between August 10 and 1111, 2017, due to unavailability of
oxygen supply to the children's ward at the hospital, including in the critical
care units.
After a visit by Chief
Minister, Yogi Adityanath, to the hospital and massive outrage by the local
people, Dr Kafeel Khan was suspended. The Uttar Pradesh government said Dr Khan
had failed to take prompt action or intimate his superiors about the crisis
despite knowing about the situation.
The government had also
claimed that Dr Khan was the nodal medical officer in charge of the crucial
encephalitis ward at the hospital and therefore, would have known about any
critical shortages. Thousands of children are admitted to the Gorakhpur
hospital's encephalitis ward every year.
An FIR was later registered
against nine persons, including Dr Khan and the former principal of the medical
college. Consequently, on September 2, 1917, Dr Khan was arrested and forwarded
Jail.
But eight month later, he was
granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in April 2018, with the court saying
there was no direct evidence of negligence on his part.
Now, a 15-page government
probe report handed over to Dr Khan on Thursday also supports what the High
Court has said. The report was submitted to the state government in April 2019
by Himanshu Kumar, a senior IAS officer who was in charge of the investigation
against Dr Khan.
"While the government has
not been able to pin down the actual culprit yet, I have been made the scapegoat.
The report was not sent to me in all these months. Now, the Medical Education
Department has asked me to come forth to present my case on the private
practice issue, which is not even related to the tragedy," Dr Khan said.
He added, "The government
should tender an apology, provide victims with compensation and get the
incident probed by the CBI”.
