Kafeel Khan seeks IMA’s aid for reinstatement

Suspended Gorakhpur pediatrician Kafeel Khan has now approached the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to help him in the revocation of his suspension.

Khan, who was recently absolved of charges under the National Security Act (NSA), has said that despite getting a clean chit from the court and there being no evidence of medical negligence or corruption found against him in the nine probes conducted by the government, he remains suspended for the third year now.

Khan was suspended in August 2017, following the death of around 60 children in the BRD Medical College due to disruption in oxygen supply. However, other doctors accused in the BRD oxygen tragedy had been reinstated.

IMA Secretary General R.V. Asokan told reporters that the association had written a letter to the Prime Minister last year, too, in this regard as this is a matter of profession.

"The matter is connected to the state government, we have asked our state body to take a call and approach UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for his reinstatement as he has been acquitted from all the charges," Asokan said.

"Even though the Supreme Court of India says that suspension should not be more than 90 days, I have been under suspension for 1,155 days since August 22 after the BRD oxygen tragedy," Khan said in his letter to the IMA.

Even after being absolved of the charges, the state government initiated another inquiry and suspended him again. "I was suspended for a second time. But, my earlier suspension was not revoked. How could someone be suspended twice?" he asked.

Khan claimed that he had written 25 letters to the Adityanath government requesting them to allow him to work as a 'Corona warrior' but never got a response.

"They are neither revoking my suspension nor relieving me from my job," he said.

"They have even been creating administrative hurdles whenever I have tried to serve the country voluntarily. I was not allowed to visit Kerala in 2018 during the Nipah virus outbreak by the UP government. They issued a notice to me that I could not serve in another state as I was still associated with the government," he said.