Support for Amitabh Thakur has poured in on social media after the Yogi Adityanath’s police in Uttar Pradesh sensationally arrested the former IPS officer for allegedly abetting the suicide of a rape victim and her friend outside the Supreme Court. Curiously, Thakur’s arrest came just hours after he announced his intention to form a political party ahead of the next year’s assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
TIn the viral video, Thakur was being seen forcibly pushed into a police vehicle by cops even as he fiercely resisted the move. Thakur was seen shouting, “I will not go unless I am given a copy of the FIR.”
He later tweeted in Hindi, “The police have forcibly taken me to Hazratganj Kotwali without giving any reason.”
A 24-year-old woman and her friend had recently set themselves on fire outside the Supreme Court in Delhi. The woman had accused BSP MP Atul Rai of raping her in May 2019. Both the rape victim and her friend, Satyam Rai, later succumbed to their injuries.
Sharing the video of Thakur’s arrest, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav wrote on Twitter, “An extraordinary action by the BJP government’s police against an IPS officer. 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,”
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
According to news agency PTI, Director General of Police Mukul Goel said in a statement, “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.”
Meanwhile, Thakur has received plenty of support from netizens with many accusing the state government of vendetta against an upright IPS officer.
In 2013, Thakur was suspended for violating ‘service rules’ days after he released the then Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s threatening call to him.