Uttar Pradesh cadre IPS officer Amitabh Thakur, who was in March forced to prematurely retire from service, was on Friday arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in connection with an abetment to suicide case of a woman who succumbed to her burn injuries a few days after she and her male friend set themselves ablaze near the Supreme Court.
Her male associate died last week while she succumbed to her burns on Tuesday.
The woman, who had accused Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Atul Rai of rape in 2019, had accused Mr. Thakur, who was then posted as Inspector General of Police-Civil Defence in Lucknow, of trying to influence the case and spreading a false narrative against her and her friend, who was also her witness, through social media. In a Facebook live post done before they set themselves on fire on August 16, the woman and her friend also alleged that Mr. Thakur had tried to falsely project that her friend had connections with a criminal.
Mr. Thakur recently declared that he would contest the election against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from wherever he [Mr. Adityanath] decided to contest in 2022 U.P. Assembly polls.
The woman from east U.P. had in May 2019 accused Rai, now a BSP MP, of allegedly raping her in Varanasi. A month later, after winning the Lok Sabha election from Ghosi, Mr. Rai surrendered and has been in jail since.
In November 2020, the MP’s brother filed a forgery case against the woman, following which a court recently issued a non-bailable warrant against her after the police told a court that she was allegedly untraceable.
The woman and her associate had accused the police of colluding with the MP and his family and said they were being harassed to take extreme steps.
In a complaint to the Senior Superitendent of Police (SSP) Varanasi in November 2020, she also alleged that Mr. Thakur had tried to spoil her image on social media and that he had even received money from Rai to plant false evidence in the rape case in court and was provoking her to take her own life, the FIR said.
The woman claimed Mr. Thakur and other officers ran “a nexus” and alleged that he had used his position to access a confidential report from Varanasi police in the rape case and made it public.
Mr. Thakur’s wife Nutan Thakur said the arrest was an attempt to harass them for “political reasons”. She said her husband was being harassed ever since he announced he would contest against Chief Minister Adityanath and was also stopped from going to Gorakhpur by the State police.
In dramatic scenes, Mr. Thakur was forcibly boarded into a police vehicle in Lucknow and was seen vehemently resisting the arrest. “I will not go,” Mr. Thakur screamed several times as he demanded the police team show him the FIR in the case.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP)-Lucknow Central Khyati Garg said a preliminary probe conducted by a police panel had found Rai and Mr. Thakur guilty of abetment to suicide charges following which an FIR was lodged against them and Mr. Thakur was arrested after investigation.
The FIR was lodged under Sections 120B, 167, 195A, 218, 306, 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code.
According the FIR, police said the MP had seven cases lodged against the woman and her witness in the rape case in order to build pressure on her to change her statement.
