Kafeel Khan's Long Road To Freedom

Brut India

Dr. Kafeel Khan, face of the Gorakhpur oxygen tragedy, alleges he was tortured by UP police and incarcerated in nightmarish conditions. He spoke to Brut about what he now wants from his state government.

Transcript

00:00I used to scream like a mental patient in that isolated cell and you know, I couldn't

00:07pass urine for 2-3 days, it was burning and drops were coming out.

00:12I used to chew my clothes just to satisfy myself.

00:16Sometimes I felt like eating leaves, grass, you know, outside the cell.

00:30For 72 hours, they physically, mentally and emotionally, they tortured me like anything.

00:46They made me naked, they beaten me with sticks and they asked so many weird questions.

00:54I have seen in movies, doing the torture thing and doing like that, so some criminals like

01:01that they have behaved with.

01:31That night still haunts me, there were so many parents who got their kids after 13 years

01:55of marriage, after infertility treatment, you know, and those parents were begging me,

02:02the mothers were begging me to save their child.

02:26The court realized that there was no medical negligence on my part and there's no charges

02:32of corruption and I was not related to the oxygen supply, I was a pediatrician, MD-periodic

02:37and my duty was to treat children, not to arrange cylinders, not to arrange the oxygen

02:44supply.

02:45That is the work of the medical superintendent or the management of the hospital.

03:16I felt that our democracy and our constitution is in danger.

03:22It's not only the Muslims that are going to suffer, all the poor from each community

03:30and from each religion and each caste is going to be affected.

03:45So they kept me in a separate cell, in a small cell and in five days till my family

04:12moved to the court, they didn't provide me any food, two chapatis and one glass of water.

04:19That's what all I provided for five days and I was so hungry, my intestine was, because

04:26previous also SCF was tortured me, my intestine was cramping in pain and I still remember

04:34that I used to scream like a mental patient in that isolated cell and I couldn't pass

04:43urine for two, three days, it was burning and drops were coming out and I used to chew

04:51my clothes just to satisfy myself and sometimes I felt like eating leaves, grass, outside

05:03They shifted me to the barrack at the last and in that barrack, the total capacity of

05:12Mathura jail is 564 inmates, you can keep prisoners, but there were 1600.

05:19The norms of social distancing and all those things was a distant dream, you can say.

05:29The barrack which I kept was a capacity of 40 people and there were more than 150 inmates

05:36were there and there was only one toilet.

05:58It's not about Kapil, I'm victimized because my name is Dr. Kapil Khan, it's not really

06:05about that.

06:06Even if I would be Dr. Kapil Mishra or Kapil Singh or any other religion, the government

06:13would have done the same witch hunting because I'm raising the voice of those 17 innocent

06:20kids who lost their lives, their parents are still waiting for the justice even after three

06:25years and I'm exposing their poor health infrastructure.

06:30If Dr. Kapil is not a murderer and the court is saying that Dr. Kapil is not a murderer,

06:38then who is the real responsible person?

06:42I call the whole incident a man-made massacre and I think that's one of the reasons that

06:50the government is still haunting me.

06:55It's already three-four days I came out of this jail.

07:23He still didn't recognize me as a father.

07:26He then referred to my brother and that's the most painful part because when I was doing

07:35MD pediatrics and I was getting trained in Manipal, I have done my MD from Manipal Institute

07:41in Karnataka and in those days, my training period, my teachers used to tell me that you

07:48will learn the milestones when you would become a father.

07:53When your child started talking, walking, running, climbing and those milestones, I

08:01have missed it because the first time my daughter was 11 months old when they imprisoned me

08:08and when I came out, I still remember when I came out on 28th of April 2018 and 29th

08:18morning when she saw me, like in the morning she got up and she saw one man sleeping with

08:26her mother, she started screaming, nahi, nahi, nahi, nahi and I never knew that when she

08:36started talking and when she started running and when she started walking, I never knew.

08:42That's the most painful scar he has given me.

08:52I would humbly request to our Chief Minister, Shri Yogi Adityanathji Maharaj that please

09:04either reinstate me or terminate me. The problem is that I have resigned 25 times.

09:11Terminate me, I can go and find a job anywhere, I am a doctor. Medical Council of India has

09:19not put any restriction for me on my degree, on my seeing patients. So if you don't like

09:28me, terminate me or please reinstate me so that I can work in this major crisis when

09:37the whole India is suffering with the coronavirus.

09:48I won't bend, I am not going to bend. Whatever harassment and whatever rollercoaster life

09:56me and my family is suffering for the last three years, because somebody has to speak.

10:01I don't know how to fear, no matter how much I fear, every time I will get up with a new

10:06strength, no matter how much I bend.

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