The Allahabad High Court, while releasing Dr Kafeel Khan from Mathura Jail, has observed that Dr Khan’s speech is not such that “a reasonable man could have arrived at a conclusion as the inference drawn by the District Magistrate, Aligarh.”
Chandra Bhushan Singh, District Magistrate of Aligarh, had invoked section 3(2) of The National Security Act, 1980 on February 13 and passed an order to continue the detention of Dr Khan.
His order came after the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Aligarh granted bail to Dr Khan on February 10 in a case in which it has been alleged that he addressed a gathering of 600 students at Aligarh Muslim University on December 12 and incited them for communal violence.
Advertisement
The Allahabad High Court set aside the order of detention under NSA on September 1 and released Dr Khan from Jail.
Commenting on the rationale behind the DM’s order the court said, “Our anxiety is only to assess that as to whether a reasonable man could have arrived at a conclusion as arrived by the District Magistrate, Aligarh? Prima facie, the speech is not such that a reasonable man could have arrived at a conclusion as the inference drawn by the District Magistrate, Aligarh.”
When contacted, Singh didn’t respond to the HC’s observations.
This is not the first time that Singh has courted controversy. Before being appointed as DM, Aligarh, he held various positions such as DM and Collector of Azamgarh and Sonbhadra. Appointed as IAS on August 13, 2014, he started his career as Joint Secretary to the Govt of UP Irrigation & Water Resource Dept in Lucknow.
Advertisement
His tenure as DM and Collector of Sonbhadra mired into controversy for in 2016 for alleged arbitrary allotment of the mining areas. It is believed that due to his alleged role in the mining scam, he was transferred to Lucknow on February 9, 2017, and after a waiting period of almost two months, he was appointed the Additional Excise Commissioner in Prayagraj.
