File Photo: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Hours after Uttar Pradesh IPS officer Amitabh Thakur said Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had no right to scold him, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav spoke up on behalf of his father, saying he saw nothing wrong in what he did.
"When Mulayam Singh Yadav can scold the chief minister, there is nothing wrong in his scolding an official," Mr Yadav said, in response to media queries in Farrukhabad.
The 75-year-old SP chief is known for not mincing his words - on occasions he has even criticised his son, the Chief Minister, in public for his government's policies.
This time, he had apparently called up Mr Thakur and asked him to mend his ways, and added that if he failed to do so, it would have serious consequences.
As his party rushed to his defence, pointing out that he had merely scolded the officer, Mr Thakur, in an interview to NDTV today, said, "He (Mulayam Singh) has no right to scold me. He is not the Chief Minister".
Mr Thakur, who alleges that he is being targeted because his wife filed a corruption case against a minister, also asked the Centre today for security, claiming his life was in danger.
The SP contends that Mulayam Singh has asked Mr Thakur to mend his ways (saying "sudhar jaiye") as the officer was violating service rules and his wife was filing numerous petitions against the government. "It was not a threat," SP leader Gaurav Bhatia said.
On Saturday, Mr Thakur had filed a complaint with the police regarding Mulayam Singh's phone call and submitted an audio recording of the conversation.
Hours after, as a rape case was filed against him, he accused the SP chief of pursuing a vendetta, pointing out that the timing of the case was suspect since the complaint by the woman dated back to January.