Viral Posts Claiming Doctor Kafeel Khan Has Been Released Are False

Fake posts celebrating the release of Doctor Kafeel Khan who was arrested in Mumbai on January 29 this year, and is currently detained in Mathura jail under the National Security Act, 1980, are viral on social media.

BOOM contacted Dr Khan's lawyer as well as the senior superintendent of Mathura Jail who confirmed that the doctor has not been released yet.

On January 29 earlier this year, a team of UP Special Task Force officials had arrested Khan, who was scheduled to attend the Mumbai Bagh Anti-Citizen Amendment Act protest, from the Mumbai airport. He was wanted in a case registered against him in Aligarh for his alleged inflammatory remarks during protests against CAA held at Aligarh Muslim University in December 2019.

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Khan was brought to Aligarh and then shifted to Mathura jail. On February 10, 2020 the doctor was granted bail but not released from jail and three days later on February 13, Uttar Pradesh government booked the doctor under NSA.

On May 12, at the end of the trimester of his detention under NSA, authorities extended Dr Khan's detention by another 3 months. The NSA on the doctor has been extended up to six months, of which three months he has already spent in the Mathura jail. It's noteworthy that NSA allows preventive detention for up to a year.

The viral post on social media shares a collage of two photos of Khan in one of which he can be seen surrounded by journalists while in the other he is seen sharing an emotional moment with his wife and daughter.

A caption with the post reads 'Praise be to Allah, Doctor Kafeel Khan has been released'.

Watch the viral post below and check its archived version here.

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Similar claims are viral from several Twitter handles too.

Fact Check

BOOM checked the internet for any such reports on the release of Doctor Kafeel Khan. However, we found none.

We then contacted Mathura Jail, where the doctor is currently lodged, to verify the news of his release. Senior superintendent of the Jail Shailendra Kumar Maithrey rubbished the claims. Maithrey told BOOM that Khan has not been released yet.

BOOM also contacted Irfan Gazi, Khan's lawyer who denied such rumours. "I don't why people are spreading such news. The hearing on bail plea has been fixed for July 27," Gazi told BOOM.

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The hearing on Khan's bail plea had been deferred earlier this month too.

The pictures of Khan viral with the post are from 2018.

Doctor Kafeel Khan, a pediatrician, had earlier been arrested in 2017 in connection with the death of over 60 children at BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh due to shortage of oxygen. Two years later, in 2019, a departmental inquiry had absolved the doctor of the charges of medical negligence, corruption and dereliction of duty levelled against him earlier. He was suspended from his position and had spent nine months in jail for the charges he was later cleared of. Read more about it here.