The maternal uncle of paediatrician Kafeel Khan, who has been recently booked under the National Security Act for his comments during a Citizenship Amendment Act protest, was shot dead outside his house in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur, PTI reported on Sunday. Nusratullah Warsi was killed allegedly over a property dispute, said the police.
The 55-year-old property dealer was shot dead on Saturday around 10.45 pm when he was returning from his lawyer’s house. The unidentified assailant shot Warsi in his head. Warsi, who owned many properties in and around Gorakhpur, was fighting cases on illegal possession, reported The Times of India.
A first information report has been filed against two people. “On the written complaint of family members, case of murder against one Imammuddin and Anil Sonkar has been registered and police has initiated probe and is searching for both the accused,” Circle Officer VP Singh told PTI. “Police met the women in their house and is interrogating them.”
The police said prima facie it was a case of murder due to monetary and property dispute. “Following a complaint by family members, we have formed three teams to arrest the culprits,” Gorakhpur Senior Superintendent of Police Sunil Gupta told Hindustan Times. “Soon, the case will be worked out.”
In 2018, Dr Khan’s youngest brother was shot at over a property dispute. Khan had then accused BJP lawmaker Kamlesh Paswan of the attack. The MP, however, had refuted the charges.
Doctor Khan was arrested by the police on January 29 and granted bail in the case by a court in Aligarh district on February 10. Just before his release on bail, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh booked Khan under the stringent NSA for allegedly making inflammatory comments during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act at the Aligarh Muslim University in December.
Khan was a paediatrician at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur, when 63 children died in 2017 due to lack of oxygen. He was suspended from his post, and jailed for nine months after a criminal case of medical negligence, corruption and dereliction of duty was filed against him. But an Uttar Pradesh government inquiry last year cleared him of all charges and lauded his actions to save lives during the crisis.
However, in October last year, the Uttar Pradesh government began a new departmental inquiry against Dr Khan for spreading incorrect information about the probe report and for making “anti-government” remarks during his suspension. The government also claimed that Dr Khan “caused panic” after he allegedly forcefully entered the paediatric department of the Bahraich district hospital on September 22 last year.
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