Resident doctors at the AMU’s Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital on Sunday demanded that the charges slapped against Kafeel Khan under the National Security Act be withdrawn.

The doctor was arrested by the UP Special Task Force from Mumbai on January 29 in connection with a speech he had delivered during a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Aligarh Muslim University on December 12.

The Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) held a protest march on the hospital campus against the imposition of the NSA against the Gorakhpur doctor after he was granted bail.

RDA president Hamza Malik said the move was a “blatant attempt to crush dissent and a violation of the Constitution of India”.

He said that by targeting the doctor, the Uttar Pradesh government had done a great disservice to the entire medical community.

The AMU Students’ Coordination Committee described the decision to charge Kafeel under the NSA a “direct assault” on a member of the medical fraternity who is “known for his upright behaviour and a champion of free speech”.

Committee spokesperson and former AMU Students’ Union president Faizul Hasan said the decision to charge Kafeel under the NSA even after he was granted bail was “a direct violation of a Supreme Court ruling on such issues”.

Hasan said Kafeel’s fate should serve as an eye-opener for the rest of the country on the democratic rights in Uttar Pradesh.

The doctor was earlier arrested for a suspected role in the death of over 60 children within an week at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in August 2017. Short supply of oxygen at the children’s ward was blamed at that time for the deaths.

About two years later, a state government probe cleared the doctor of all major charges, prompting him to seek an apology from the Yogi Adityanath government.