UP Govt: Wrong to say that Gorakhpur doctor got clean chit

Days after it came to light that Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College pediatrician Kafeel Khan was cleared of corruption and medical negligence charges by a probe panel, the state government on Thursday said it would be wrong to presume that he was given a clean chit.

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"Some facts were not taken into account by the probe committee of Principal Secretary (Stamp and Registration Department) Himanshu Kumar and the government is looking into them," Rajneesh Dubey, Principal Secretary, Medical Education, told media persons here.

Two years ago, over 60 children had died in less than a week at the medical college.

Many of the infants died allegedly because of disruption in oxygen supply on the night of August 10 due to pending payments to the supplier, a charge refuted by the state government.

The official said, "Kafeel had told the inquiry committee that he was not the in-charge of the children's ward at the time of the incident but certain documents have been found which indicate that he had worked as its nodal officer during that period."

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Government to look into new facts

These new facts would be looked into by the government and till a final report was not received, it would be wrong to say that he had been given a clean chit, he said, adding that Kafeel was given a copy of the report to give his reply, which was leaked in the media and "wrongly used" by him .

He said charges of private practice and one other was true. Last week, Kafeel Khan had claimed that he was given a clean chit and had been absolved of any negligence in the case.

The government had maintained that the children died due to different illnesses, including Japanese encephalitis and there was no shortage of oxygen.

Khan was accused of negligence and corruption, suspended and arrested following the outrage over the deaths at Baba Raghav Das Medical College. His suspension is yet to be revoked.

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