Allahabad: Dr Kafeel Khan was released from Mathura jail on Tuesday midnight. After the Allahabad High Court quashed his detention under the National Security Act and ordered his immediate release.

High Court said that his speech at the AMU didn’t promote hatred or violence and gave a call for national integrity. The bench comprising Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh said the Aligarh district magistrate, who passed the order for Khan’s detention, did a “selective reading” of his speech, “ignoring its true intent”. According to the Khan’s lawyer Irfan Ghazi informed “Mathura jail administration at around 11.00 pm that Dr Kafeel will be released, and at around midnight, he was released”.

The high court allowed the writ petition filed by Khan’s mother Nuzhat Parveen and said the detention order by the district magistrate was illegal. The petition argued that Khan was granted bail in February by a competent court and he was supposed to be released on bail. However, he was not released for four days and the National Security Act (NSA) was subsequently invoked against him. Hence, his detention was illegal.

Khan was in jail since January after he delivered the allegedly provocative speech at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests in December last year. He was lodged in Mathura jail.

Quashing Khan’s detention order, the court said, “A complete reading of the speech primafacie does not disclose any effort to promote hatred or violence. It also nowhere threatens peace and tranquility of the city of Aligarh. The address gives a call for national integrity and unity among the citizens. The speech also deprecates any kind of violence.” The court further said in the instant case, the “causal link is found to be missing or completely broken”.

Under the NSA, a person can be detained without a charge for up to 12 months if authorities are satisfied that he or she is a threat to national security or law and order. Khan spent over six months in jail under the NSA. The Court in its order said, “The writ petition for the reasons above is allowed. The order of detention dated 13th February, 2020 passed by District Magistrate, Aligarh and confirmed by the State of Uttar Pradesh is set aside. The extension of the period of detention of detenue Dr. Kafeel Khan is also declared illegal.”

“A writ in the nature of habeas corpus is hereby issued to release Dr. Kafeel Khan, the detenue, from State custody forthwith,” said the Court. The Uttar Pradesh government had extended Khan’s detention under the NSA by three months twice — in May and August. In an order dated August 4, the Home Department had said the NSA was invoked against Khan on February 13, 2020, on the orders of the Aligarh district magistrate. Khan, who worked as a pediatrician at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College, first hit headlines in 2017 after several children died at the hospital due to the lack of oxygen cylinders.