Ex-UP cop, who challenged Yogi Adityanath, arrested in suicide case
Amitabh Thakur, a former senior Uttar Pradesh police officer, was arrested on Friday in Lucknow in an abetment of suicide case. The action against him came shortly after Thakur announced the name of his proposed political party that he plans to field in the next state Assembly elections. He has been sent to judicial custody until September 9, reports say.
A video of Thakur's forceful arrest has gone viral on social media. In that clip, the former cop was seen being shoved into a police jeep outside his residence in Lucknow even as he resisted the arrest. "I will not go unless you show me a copy of the FIR," Thakur was heard saying. He also called the arrest "illegal."
Retired IPS officer Amitabh Thakur has been arrested by Lucknow Police.#AmitabhThakur has been charged with several charges including abetment to suicide, criminal conspiracy.#UttarPradesh #Lucknow pic.twitter.com/xl86ul2fkb
— #जयश्रीराधे 🚩🙏 (@gayatrigkhurana) August 27, 2021
Police said they found evidence during a preliminary probe that implicated Thakur. He is named in a complaint by a 24-year-old woman, who died at a Delhi hospital earlier this week. The woman and her male friend had set themselves on fire outside the Supreme Court on August 16. In 2019, she had accused BSP MP from UP, Atul Rai, of raping her.
In a Facebook video made by the woman and her friend before attempting suicide, she had named several officials, including Thakur, saying they allegedly helped Rai, the rape-accused politician, in harassing her with a police case.
In March this year, Thakur was forced by the Union Home Ministry to take early retirement over "non-performance." He was "not found fit to be retained" in the service, according to the order. Earlier, he was suspended for several months from service in July 2015 under the Samajwadi Party (SP) government, days after he accused former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav of threatening him.
Thakur's arrest came after he announced the name of his proposed political outfit, Adhikar Sena. A known critic of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led government, he says he would contest the upcoming polls from wherever the CM contests. "Adityanath took many undemocratic, improper, suppressive, harassing, and discriminatory steps during his tenure as Chief Minister," his wife, an RTI activist, said, according to PTI news agency.
