New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) arrested Kafeel Khan on Wednesday night at the Mumbai airport for alleged inflammatory statements he made in December at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus during a protest against the Citizenship Amendments Act (CAA).
Khan arrived in Mumbai to attend an anti-CAA protest and was arrested with assistance from the Mumbai Police.
“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,” an official from the Mumbai Police told news agency PTI.
The officer said that Khan made inflammatory statements on December 12 during a protest at the Bab e Syed Gate outside the AMU. The official also alleged that the doctor had made “objectionable comments” against Union home minister Amit Shah.
A few days later, Aligarh police stormed the university and allegedly attacked students who were protesting against the Act. A fact finding report said that the police unleashed violence on campus, while chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and using Islamophobic slurs.
The FIR against Khan mentions that Swaraj India’s president Yogendra Yadav was also present during the speech at AMU.
Following the arrest in the case, Khan was taken to the Sahar Police Station and after completing formalities he will be taken to UP on a transit remand, according to PTI.
Khan, a paediatrician, was suspended from the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in 2017 after the death of over 60 children in less than a week. He was also arrested and jailed. He has said that the Yogi Adityanath government implicated him in the case. In September last year, Khan was cleared of all charges and has demanded full reinstatement.
(With PTI inputs)