Retired IPS officer of UP cadre, Amitabh Thakur, who had earlier announced his candidature against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the assembly polls, was allegedly put under a house arrest on Saturday, just ahead of his planned visit to Gorakhpur.
In a video message which went viral on Saturday, Thakur said that when he was preparing to leave, the Gomti Nagar police arrived and told him that he could not go ahead with the planned visit, citing security reasons. He further alleged that the police did not let him go even when he asked them to provide him security instead of cancelling the visit.
"I sent a letter to them and they gave me a bizarre response. They said that I could not visit Gorakhpur and Faizabad due to the self-immolation of a couple outside the Supreme Court. The woman had alleged rape by an MP and they said that it had led to anger amongst women against me and I could not go there," Thakur said.
The case that Thakur was referring to pertains to an attempted suicide by a 27-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman outside the premises of Supreme Court on August 16. The man has succumbed to his injuries and the woman has sustained 85 percent burn injuries. The women had alleged rape by Bahujan Samaj Party MP Atul Rai in 2019, and he has been in judicial custody for last two years.
Thakur, who was given compulsory retirement following a decision taken by the Union Home Ministry in March, said that it seems like “Yogi Adityanathji is scared because of my visit” and added that “it is rather funny that a tall leader like him was petrified of me and my wife”.
According to Additional Commissioner of Police, Gomti Nagar, Shweta Srivastava, a rape victim and her aide who had tried self-immolation outside Supreme Court, had levelled several allegations against Amitabh Thakur. The ACP said the rape victim had alleged that the former IPS was helping the accused and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Atul Rai in her case.
Both rape victim and the accused are residents of a place near Gorakhpur. This is also one of the reasons behind the detention of the former IPS.
The Lucknow police however said that Amitabh Thakur had not been arrested but was being detained while going to Gorakhpur.