The Samajwadi Party has decided to field Gorakhpur-based paediatrician Kafeel Khan for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council polls, Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.
Khan will be contesting for the Deoria-Kushinagar seat, the party’s National Secretary Rajendra Chaudhary told the newspaper. The elections to 36 seats of the council will held on April 9. The counting of the votes will be done on April 12.
In November, Khan was terminated from his services by the Uttar Pradesh government. He was head of the paediatric ward at Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Medical College, where in August 2017, sixty-three children had died due to shortage of oxygen.
Khan was suspended in 2017 and jailed for nine months on charges of medical negligence, corruption and dereliction of duty. He was later granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in April 2018. The court observed that there was no proof of medical negligence against Khan in connection to the case.
In September 2019, the Uttar Pradesh government cleared Khan of all charges and praised him for doing everything he could to help save lives. In the same year, the government suspended Khan again for allegedly treating patients forcibly at a hospital in Bahraich district.
On Tuesday, Khan met Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and presented him a copy of his book written on the Gorakhpur hospital tragedy.
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