File photo of suspended IPS officer Amitabh Thakur
A day after his suspension, a combative senior IPS officer Amitabh Thakur, who is locked in a tussle with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, today said he would continue his fight even as the opposition slammed the action as an "act of revenge" by the ruling party.
In a related development, the woman who lodged a first information report or FIR against Mr Thakur alleging rape, hours after he lodged a complaint against Mr Yadav for threatening him, recorded her statement before a magistrate.
"The woman's statement was recorded as per rules before a magistrate," Inspector General Public Grievance A Mutha Jain said.
Mr Thakur, a IG-rank officer, was suspended late last night by the Uttar Pradesh government with immediate effect on prima facie charges of dereliction of duty, indiscipline, arbitrariness, adopting an anti-establishment approach and flouting high court orders.
"As far as I am concerned, there is no doubt that the voice in the audio is that of Mulayam...I will hand over the original tape to the police and see what action they take," Mr Thakur said.
The Samajwadi Party chief is in the eye of a storm after he allegedly threatened Mr Thakur with serious consequences and asked him to mend his ways.
Tracing the genesis of the "threat" by Mr Yadav, he said it appeared to be a fall out of efforts of his wife, an RTI activist, to expose the illegal mining and the alleged role of "Mulayam's blue-eyed boy" Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, who is the mines minister.
The FIR against Mr Thakur was lodged by the Ghaziabad-based woman under sections 376 (rape), 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code on Saturday night.
The officer's wife Nutan Thakur was also made co-accused in the FIR.
"The intention behind the suspension of Thakur appears to be mala fide. This is an act of revenge. Had Thakur done any anti-government act or flouted rules and regulations, he should have been suspended before tape of Mulayam Singh Yadav threatening him came to the fore," Uttar Pradesh Congress president Nirmal Khatri said.
Mr Khatri was referring to an audio tape released by Mr Thakur purportedly containing the voice of the SP chief.
BJP too felt that Mr Thakur's suspension was "unfortunate" and an act of government to put pressure on him.
"It's (suspension) unfortunate. His dharna outside DGP's office was also taken into consideration for his suspension. Why action was not taken when he sat on dharna?," BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.
Senior BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya said it was an action of an "anarchic government" against an officer with a similar tendency.
On Mr Thakur's suspension, Mr Maurya declined to say anything.