Will be able to 'see, touch' him after long time, says Kafeel Khan's mother as court orders his release

Gorakhpur: Hours after the Allahabad High Court quashed the detention of Dr Kafeel Khan under the stringent NSA and ordered his immediate release, his elated mother Nuzhat Parveen said it will be after a long time that she will be able to “see, touch and feel” him. Khan has been in jail since January after he delivered an alleged provocative speech at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) during an anti-CAA protests in December last year. He is currently lodged in a Mathura jail. His mother had filed a petition in the court arguing that he was granted bail in February and was supposed to be released. However, he was not released and the National Security Act (NSA) was invoked against him. On Tuesday, while on her way to the Mathura jail, Nuzhat Parveen told PTI over the phone, “I am very happy that my son is coming out of the jail. I will be able to see him, touch him and feel him after a long time. My son is a good person and he is never against the country or society. Today is my daughter-in-law’s birthday as well, and we are carrying a cake with us as she is in Mathura.” Khan’s elder brother, who accompanied her mother, said, “I am happy over the victory of truth. We are on the way to Mathura as today is his wife Dr Shabistan Khan’s birthday and we thought of celebrating it together. We are carrying cake with us and hope that today we’ll celebrate the day together.” He said there was nothing anti-national or provocative in his brother’s speech. He tried to bring everyone together in his speech but police lodged an FIR against him and the NSA was imposed on him," he said. Khan had hit the headlines for the first time in 2017 after the deaths of several kids due to lack of oxygen at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College, where he worked as a paediatrician. Initially, he was hailed as a saviour for arranging emergency oxygen cylinders. However, later he faced action along with nine other doctors and staff members of the hospital, all of whom were released on bail. A state government probe had cleared Khan of all major charges, prompting him to seek an apology from the Yogi Adityanath government. The doctor had alleged that an institutional failure had led to the deaths. He subsequently faced threats, cases and even his family members were attacked, which the doctor dubbed as political vendetta on the part of the state government.