Kafeel Khan, behind bars for 'inflammatory' statements at AMU, tells court he fears being killed in encounter by UP Police

Mumbai: Child specialist Dr Kafeel Khan, arrested for allegedly making inflammatory statements at the AMU during protests against the CAA last month, on Thursday raised apprehension in a court in Mumbai about being killed in an “encounter” by the Uttar Pradesh police.

Khan expressed the apprehension when he was produced in a court in suburban Bandra by the Uttar Pradesh police for seeking his transit remand.

Khan was arrested on Wednesday night from the Mumbai airport in a joint operation by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) and the city police when he arrived to attend anti-CAA protests in the metropolis, an official said. He was produced in the court, which sent him in three-day transit remand, his lawyers said.

According to his lawyers, Khan claimed in the court that he has been “falsely” implicated in the case by the Uttar Pradesh police.

Khan told the court “there is a chance that he will be killed in an encounter if transit (remand) is given,” and insisted that he be kept in Mumbai, his lawyers said. Khan fears encounter “because he has full information about the people responsible for the death of children (in a UP hospital”, his lawyers told reporters outside the court.

The UP police assured the court Khan would be taken safely and no harm will be caused to him. The UP police will have to produce the accused at the chief juridical magistrate’s court in Aligarh within three days.

“Officials of the UP STF arrested Dr Kafeel Khan in a case which was registered at Civil Lines Police Station under section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) of IPC. Our police team helped our UP counterparts on their request,” said an official from the Mumbai police.

He claimed Khan had made inflammatory statements on December 12 last year during an anti-CAA protest near Bab-e-Syed Gate outside the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in front of more than 600 students. The official alleged the Gorakhpur-based doctor had also made objectionable comments against Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The FIR against Khan mentions that Swaraj India’s president Yogendra Yadav was also present during the speech at AMU.

The paediatrician had come to the limelight in 2017 when a controversy broke out after the death of over 60 children in less than a week at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, where he was posted.