The Uttar Pradesh government has issued an order notifying voluntary retirement for Amitabh Thakur—a 1992 batch officer of the Indian Police Services.
Bokaro-born Thakur is currently posted as Inspector General of Civil Defence. He is a mechanical engineer by training and is also a fellow of the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.
The letter about Thakur’s removal said that he was being retired for ‘janhit’ (public welfare).
In a tweet, Thakur said, “The government does not need my services anymore. Jai Hind”.
The plain-speaking officer has been openly critical of the present and past governments on many occasions.
In July 2015, he had filed an FIR against former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav for threatening him over telephone. Yadav’s son Akhilesh was then the CM of the state. The case was dismissed on the grounds that no evidence was found to support the allegations.
He has also been unsparing in his criticism of his peers. He had, for instance, recently posted about a female officer taking bribes and had said that she had perhaps mistaken the purpose of Mission Shakti—a programme of the state government for empowering women to complain about crimes against them.
In 2017, his appraisal report by Principal Secretary, Appointment and Personnel Department read, “….(Thakur) has been extremely liberal in writing his pen picture and in numerical assessment. A uniformed officer needs to follow certain norms and discipline of the service. The general impression about the officer is that he is extremely litigacious and on many occasions has created embarrassing situations for the government."
This was challenged in court by Thakur for being defamatory. His wife arguing for him had noted that the remarks were “..without any evidence and merely on the basis of general impression. … no basis for making such comment… the comments have lowered his prestige and image which have been given in a total whimsical manner…”
His most recent calling into question was the police theory of the double murder in Unnao, wherein the victims were allegedly given water laced with a home use insecticide. Thakur had demanded an investigation into the point that the said poison, sulfo sufuran, when mixed with water would give it a milky appearance and with the slightest shaking become frothy. Thus, it was highly unlikely that the victims could have drunk it mistaking it for water.
