Ahead of the hearing of Kafeel Khan’s case in the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday, a campaign to release the Gorakhpur doctor took the Twitter by storm on Sunday evening. With over a lakh tweets in four hours, ReleaseOurDrKafeel was the top trending hashtag.
The campaign demanding the release of the suspended paediatrician of Gorakhpur’s BRD Hospital was announced by the All India Students’ Association against the “witch-hunting of activists.”
‘Provocative speech’
Dr. Khan is lodged in Mathura jail after he was slapped with the National Security Act by the U.P. government for delivering a “provocative” speech during the Anti-CAA-NRC protests at Aligarh Muslim University.
He was arrested from Mumbai on January 29 and brought to Aligarh where a local court granted him bail on a bond of ₹60,000 on February 10. But hours before he was to be released on February 13, the NSA was slapped on him and was again put behind bars.
“In April, the Uttar Pradesh Advisory Board confirmed the NSA invoked by the Aligarh administration and on May 12 his detention was extended by three months,” said Irfan Gazi, Dr. Khan’s lawyer.
“The Allahabad High Court was scheduled to hear the bail plea on July 15 but it was deferred to July 22, after its functioning was affected due to the COVID pandemic,” he added.
Personalities from various fields such as poet Meena Kandasamy and actor Swara Bhasker tweeted in the favour of Dr. Khan's release.
