Kafeel Khan, the doctor who has long been painted as a villain in the Gorakhpur oxygen tragedy, is in the process of approaching the High Court to quash an FIR filed against him.
Filed on December 1, by one Manish Shukla, a resident of Lucknow, the report against Khan and five unknown persons is under serious sections including 153-B, 143, 465, 467 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. It also lists Sections 3 and 12 of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867.
Of the IPC Sections mentioned above, the first deals with punishment for promoting disharmony, the second with unlawful assembly, the third with forgery, and the fourth with forgery of documents. As the last (and other Sections of the FIR) carries a punishment extending upto 10 years, an appeal to quash the FIR can only be made to the High Court.
“My lawyer is in the process of collecting all papers since 2017”, said Khan.
In September 2017, the Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur, had run out of oxygen supply and 63 children, had died. Most were suffering from Japanese encephalitis, a disease spread through the bite of an infected culex mosquito. It is a disease common in eastern UP and Bihar.
Since the deaths, Khan, who had gone beyond the call of duty to save the children, has had six FIRs filed against him. While all the other accused were released and reinstated, he has been terminated from his job.
His objection to the termination of February 2022, has had the court ask the state government for an explanation. That explanation, supposed to be submitted within six weeks, is still to come in. The next date for that case will fall in the second week of January.
The FIR, a copy of which was made available to Khan only on Tuesday says the complainant had, on December 1, overheard some people use malicious words against certain ministers and officers; and that they were also talking about uprooting the government. It further says Khan had secretly published a book and was surreptitiously distributing it to collect money for his nefarious plans. Shukla has also alleged that the people, whose faces he could not see because it was dark, were talking about ensuring that the book was widely distributed before the general elections of 2024 so that the incumbent government could be uprooted and that it did not matter if there were riots because of the book.
The book in question is ‘The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy: A Doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis’. On Amazon, it has been available since December 2021. Many, including this writer, have reviewed it.
But why a fresh FIR against Khan now? The recently released Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Jawan has an episode on the Gorakhpur tragedy- without mentioning any names. In one scene, a doctor can be seen frantically telling parents how to use ambu bags to provide respiratory support to their children. It was an act Khan had performed the night the oxygen ran out.
Ever since the movie hit the screens, there has been a swirl of rumours that Khan had been paid crores for it. It is a charge he denies. “I was not contacted before, during or after filming”, he said.
With Jawan’s massive success, the story of the medical negligence, which may have been forgotten, has been brought back to memory.
In his own book, nowhere does Khan talk about overthrowing any government. It is a recap of the tragic events and the months that he then spent in jail.
Since September 2020, when Khan was released from Mathura jail he has not even stayed in his hometown of Gorakhpur, preferring instead to shift base to Rajasthan.
While this fresh FIR has him worried, he is more concerned about the impact it has on his family. “My daughter is now seven and can access the internet. How do I explain things to her? My 75-year-old mother always has unshed tears in her eyes when I video call her,” he said.
Incidentally, on September 29, after Jawan’s release, Khan had written to Shah Rukh Khan to convey his appreciation of the film and also a desire to meet the film star and director Atlee Kumar.
In his letter, Khan said, “While I understand that ‘Jawan’ is a work of fiction, the parallels it draws to the tragedy serve as a powerful reminder of the systemic failures, apathy, and most importantly the innocent lives lost. It underscores the urgent need for accountability within our health system”.
It also draws attention to the fact that while in the film, the guilty are caught, in real life, they roam free while Khan has been the scapegoat and there is no justice for the 63 parents who lost their children.
While the film’s makers and actors enjoy greater clout to not be dragged into a FIR which is frivolous at best, Khan once again finds himself in the midst of trouble. He said he had a genuine fear of being jailed yet again.