Ubaidullah Nasir
After Tablighi Jamat judgement by Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court the release of NSA detainee Dr. Kafeel Khan and observations by learned judges of Allahabad High Court on his detention under NSA are a slap on the face of government. The two judgements are proof that how administration under BJP government works with blind eyes blatant partiality communal approach and hate towards a Muslims of this country. Tabligi jamat judgement has already been discussed in this coloumn earlier so now we will discuss Dr. Kafeel’s judgement. But before this it will be better to know about the background of the entire episode. Dr. kafeel a child specialist was working with BRD Medical College of Gorakhpur. In this hospital due to shortage of oxygen cylinders children were dying. Dr kafeel was informed by hospital staff he immediately rushed to hospital did his best to save children, arranged oxygen cylinders from his personal sources and even bought some cylinders from his own pocket. Overnight he became a hero news channels started doing stories on him papers were filled with stories in his appreciation. Together with this publicity the case of shortage of oxygen cylinders and government carelessness also erupted. Following which some Hindi papers started doing adverse stories against Dr. Kafeel Khan and started painting him as villain. It was a diversionary tactics to save the skin of government and officers concerned. Since Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was many time MP from Gorakhpur and now the CM of UP the criticism was directly targeting him. After few days of the tragedy Yogi Ji visited the hospital and publicly snubbed Dr. Kafeel blaming him for shortage of oxygen cylinders and warning him to teach a lesson. “Bade hero bante ho thik kar dunga tum ko”is what he has publicly said to Dr. Kafeel. Subsequently Dr. kafeel was suspended and a case of negligence dereliction of duty etc was filed against him and he was arrested. A departmental inquiry was set up against him. After three or four months the committee gave its report and gave clean chit to him in almost all the charges that were framed against him. But since CM Yogi Adityanth was having personal grudge against him he was not reinstated. Not only Dr. Kafeel but his family too was under the target of government his younger brother was murdered,according to police it was a case of property dispute but many in Gorakhpur still don’t believe this police theory. Since then Dr. Kafeel’s ordeal had not finished and he is at the target of Yogi ji. His detention under NSA shortly after getting bail from CJM court but before coming out of jail is the clear proof of this fact. Though the detention order was issued by DM Aligarh but everyone knows who was behind that.He was arrested from Mumbai by a special UP STF team which was flown to Mumbai to arrest this doctor as if he was a terrorist. However, after his release from Mathura jail after being granted bail by Allahabad High Court Dr. Kafeel thanked that STF team for not killing him in encounter. This was a blunt remark on the working of UP police under Yogi ji.
Under instruction from Priyanka Gandhi the Congress general secretary in-charge UP the UPCC and its minority wing started a campaign to release Dr. kafeel. Congress minority wing under its national president Javed Nadeem state president Shahnawaz Alam and national coordinator Rafat Fatima and other workers started a signature campaign blood donation camps social media movement was started by the party. The party legislatures under UPCC Chief Ajay Kumar lallu and legislature party leader Aradhna Mishra also protested inside UP assembly. Many NGOs and individuals also joined the campaign in their own way thus a public pressure was also built up for his release.
In its 42 page judgement the two judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mathur described Dr. Kafeel’s detention under NSA imposed two months after the speech was delivered as bad in law and based on selective reading and selective mention of few phrases from the speech ignoring its true intent. The learned judges said that a complete reading of the speech does not disclose any effort to promote hatred or violence. Like Mumbai High Court in Tablgi jamat case the Allahabad High court in this case deserves credit for breaking a disquieting pattern for targeting a particular community for petty political gains. In recent times the state authorities have frequently invoked the provisions to criminalise free speech and clamp down on dissent. We have seen during anti CAA protest that it was not taken as genuine opposition to a law whose constitutionality is under the consideration of Supreme court but as an antinational act and social political workers opposing this law in different parts of the country are still feeling the heat and revengeful attitude of government specially in UP and Delhi where BJP is in power. Dr. Kafeel too has taken part in such protests and has addressed many public meetings and is paying the price for opposing CAA.
Though Allahabad and Bombay High Courts have not only given relief to the petitioners but have delivered judgements highlighting the partiality and unconstitutional working of the government and administration but the fact remains that from distt. Courts to SC all is not well as far as protecting fundamental and constitutional rights of citizens specially in case of opposing the government is concerned. Reputed English daily Indian Express in one of its front page story has scrutinized 10 cases involving free speech that came before before the SC since January this year and found that in four of these cases in which the court upheld the right of free speech (though hurting the religious sentiments of minorities and targeting Congress and its top leaders) and gave relief the state and the petitioner had argued on the same side BUT the hon’able court gave no relief to the petitioner in the other six cases where the centre was the defendant and objected.
The judgement on Tabligi Jamat and Dr.Kafeel cases raises a fundamental question and this question has been raised in many other cases also where the detainee after being found no guilty by the courts were released but only after passing many many years and months in jail. Most of such detainees belongs to vulnerable segment of the society mainly SC/ST and Muslims. In many cases there may be error of judgement by police with no malafide intention but in many many cases police works in blatant partial and malafide manner as is evident from tabligi jamat and Dr. kafeel case. Many Muslims and Dalit youths were released after passing so many years in jail but golden era of their age is passed behind bars. Should not in such cases the prosecutor be held responsible and the victims are compensated as a mark of remorse and apology. This is a burning question and it must be pondered over.