Kolkata: Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Chowdhury has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the release of Gorakhpur doctor Kafeel Khan, booked under the National Security Act and now in jail for his “hate speech” during an anti-CAA protest in Aligarh.
Chowdhury timed his letter a day before the Ram Mandir foundation-laying event in Ayodhya on Wednesday, saying that Ramraj was “antithetical” to “injustice, discrimination and retribution”. While citing opposition to CAA in his letter, he said: “I, on behalf of my party, had opposed the legislation both inside and outside Parliament. However, NSA was not invoked against me or millions of others in the country.”
Chowdhury said he was dismayed to note that the UP doctor had been booked under NSA when the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression. In his letter, he pointed out that United Nations had also been insisting on Khan’s release.
The UP STF had arrested Khan from Mumbai on December 13, 2019. Chowdhury sought the PM’s intervention to end the “harrowing” ordeal of the jailed doctor.
