Lucknow: Hours after announcing his plans to float a political outfit ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, former IPS officer Amitabh Thakur was arrested from his residence here on serious charges, including abetment of suicide of a rape victim and her friend in Delhi recently. A video of his arrest has gone viral on social media platforms wherein Thakur is seen trying to clamber onto the roof of the police vehicle outside his residence. “I will not go unless I am given a copy of the FIR”, Thakur can be heard saying repeatedly as police personnel shoved him into the vehicle.
Reacting to Thakur’s arrest, Samajwadi Party chief and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav lashed out at the BJP government in the state. “The BJP”s politics survives only by creating rifts among people. Now due to the pressure of the BJP government, the police are compelled to work against the police. Such treatment to a retired IPS is unforgivable,” he tweeted along with the video showing Thakur’s arrest.
भूतपूर्व पुलिस के विरुद्ध भाजपा सरकार की पुलिस का अभूतपूर्व कार्य!
भाजपाई राजनीति लोगों के बीच दरार पैदा करके ही जिंदा है. अब भाजपा सरकार के दबाव के कारण पुलिस ही पुलिस के ख़िलाफ़ काम करने पर मजबूर है. एक सेनानिवृत आईपीएस के साथ ऐसा व्यवहार अक्षम्य है. #नहीं_चाहिए_भाजपा pic.twitter.com/o7OG4XRAMy
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) August 27, 2021
Lucknow Police Commissioner DK Thakur confirmed that the former IPS officer has been arrested in a case registered after the death of the rape victim. “In connection with the self-immolation attempt by the victim and her aide before the Supreme Court on August 16, the government had constituted an inquiry committee which in its interim investigation report, found BSP MP from Ghosi, Atul Rai and Amitabh Thakur prima facie guilty of abetting the victim and her associate witness to commit suicide and of other charges and also recommended registering a case against them”, Director General of Police Mukul Goel said in a statement
Meanwhile, in a tweet, the former IPS officer said, “The police have forcibly taken me to Hazratganj Kotwali without giving any reason.” After his arrest, Amitabh Thakur was taken to a hospital for medical examination and produced in the CJM court before being sent to jail, Hazratganj police said.
For the unversed, Thakur was given compulsory retirement ahead of time by the government and he had announced to contest against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the assembly elections to be held early next year. He was given compulsory retirement on March 23 in ‘public interest’ following a decision taken by the Union Home Ministry. In July 2015 under the Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav government, Thakur was suspended from service after he accused former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav of threatening him. However, his suspension stayed in April 2016 and he was reinstated.
