LUCKNOW: Two years after he was suspended from Gorakhpur ’s BRD Medical College, a departmental inquiry against paediatrician Dr Kafeel Khan has absolved him of the charges of medical negligence , corruption and not performing his duty to the fullest on the day more than 60 lives were lost at the hospital due to oxygen shortage in August 2017.The report was handed over to him on Thursday by BRD officials.Kafeel had earlier spent nine months behind bars for the charges of which he has now been absolved of. Out on bail, Kafeel continues to be suspended from the BRD Medical College. He has demanded a CBI probe into the incident.The report was submitted on April 18, 2019 by investigating officer Himanshu Kumar, principal secretary (stamps & registration department), to the medical education department of the UP government. The 15-page report, a copy of which is with TOI, states that Kafeel was not guilty of medical negligence on his part and that he had made all efforts to control the situation on the night of August 10-11, 2017, when for 54 hours, the hospital was dealing with oxygen shortage.The report, however, has noted that Kafeel was involved in private practice till August 2016 but not after that.As per the investigation report, Kafeel was not the nodal medical officer in charge of the encephalitis ward at BRD and that the documents contesting the same provided by the department were “inadequate and inconsistent.”The report accepts the fact that in reply to a recent RTI application submitted by Kafeel, the UP government had accepted that since May 11, 2016, assistant professor Bhupendra Sharma was in-charge of the ward.Himanshu Kumar’s report has also said that while an earlier investigation by the director general of medical education did delve into the accusation of private practice by Kafeel, there is no analysis by the officer on him being involved in the process for allotting tenders for oxygen supply amounting to corruption, or of medical negligence on his part at the time of the tragedy.It also clarifies that Kafeel had informed his seniors of the oxygen shortage, providing the inquiry officer with call details of the same and also presenting proof of providing seven oxygen cylinders in his personal capacity, on the night of the tragedy.Quoting Kafeel’s bail order of the Allahabad high court of April 25, 2018, the report confirms that “there is no material on record which may establish medical negligence against the applicant individually,” and that, “he was not part of the tendering process.”Kafeel has blamed the government for keeping him in the dark for around five months and not informing him about his being free from allegations made against him. “While the government has not been able to pin down the actual culprit yet, I have been made a scapegoat. The report was not sent to me in all these months. Now, the medical education department has asked me to come forth to present my case on the private practice issue, which is not even related to the tragedy,” he said.“The government should tender an apology, provide victims with compensation and the incident probed by the CBI,” he added.