Kafeel Khan tweeted, "Never expected Justice from this Government".
The suspended paediatrician from Uttar Pradesh, Dr Kafeel Khan -- who first made headlines over the hospital deaths of children in Gorakhpur four years ago -- today said he has been sacked by the state government, although he does not have the order in hand yet. He said he will challenge it court once he receives it. Congress's Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted that the state government was motivated by "ill will" and "hate agenda" and the party stands by him.
Dr Khan -- who was under suspension over the Gorakhpur deaths -- tweeted that action was taken against him even though he got a "clean chit from a court" and nine inquiries.
"Never expected Justice from this Government as I knew I have not done anything wrong and have firm faith in our judiciary," his tweet read.
"The dismissal of Dr. Kafeel Khan by the UP government is motivated by ill-will. Government motivated by hate agenda is doing all this to harass them. But the government should keep in mind that it is not above the constitution. Congress party is with Dr. Kafeel in his fight for justice and will always be," Ms Gandhi Vadra responded in a Hindi tweet.
Dr Khan was suspended, arrested and jailed for his alleged role in the deaths of 63 children in Gorakhpur in 2017. The children had died after the oxygen supply in the hospital ran out and the Uttar Pradesh government, while suspending him, said he had failed to take prompt action despite knowing about the impending crisis.
Dr Khan said he was being made the scapegoat.
Eight months after he was jailed, he got bail from the Allahabad High Court, which said there was no direct evidence of negligence on his part. In 2019, Dr Khan claimed that a report from the state government had cleared him of all major accusations. The government denied any clean chit.
In August this year, the Allahabad High Court set aside on technical grounds, criminal proceedings against Dr Kafeel Khan in a case involving an alleged inflammatory speech he gave on the subject of the Citizenship Amendment Act at Aligarh Muslim University in 2019.
Dr Khan later said he would continue to fight for justice and get his job back. "I have written several letters to the government to reinstate me in service because I have been given clean chits in all nine inquiries against me and now, a 10th inquiry is going on. The government is also not accepting my resignation," he had said.