Amitabh Thakur, a former 1992 batch Uttar Pradesh cadre
Indian Police Service
The Indian Police Service ( IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became Partition of India, independent from the British Raj.
Along with the Indian Administ ...
(IPS) officer and a social activist, married to advocate/activist
Nutan Thakur, is the President of newly formed political party
Adhikar Sena
Adhikar may refer to:
Films
* ''Adhikar'' (1939 film), starring P.C. Barua
* ''Adhikar'' (1954 film), starring Usha Kiran
* ''Adhikar'' (1971 film), a Hindi film starring Ashok Kumar
* ''Adhikar'' (1971 Marathi film), starring Shammi
* ''Adhi ...
. He has served as a
Superintendent of Police
Superintendent (Supt) is a rank in the British police and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries, the full version is superintendent of police (SP). The rank is also used in most British Overseas Territorie ...
(SP) in ten districts of
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
, and as an Inspector General (IG) in the state's Civil Defence department.
Early life
IPS Amitabh Thakur was born at
Muzaffarpur
Muzaffarpur () is a city located in Muzaffarpur district in the Tirhut region of the Indian state of Bihar. It serves as the headquarters of the Tirhut division, the Muzaffarpur district and the Muzaffarpur Railway District. It is the fourth ...
,
Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...
.
He was brought up in Bokaro and present-day
Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . ...
(then a part of Bihar), a meticulous IPS officer, also holding a B. Tech degree in mechanical engineering from
IIT Kanpur
The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) Hindi: भारतीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान कानपुर) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. It wa ...
.
[In pics: Bureaucrats who suffered at the hands of political class by being repeatedly transferred or denied plum posting](_blank)
India Today He also has a FPM (PhD) Degree from
IIM Lucknow.
Police career
Thakur began his police career in 1992.
He has worked in ten districts of Uttar Pradesh, as a Superintendent of Police (SP). He has worked in multiple departments including Intelligence, Vigilance, Anti-Corruption and Police Training Academy.
Thakur was directly promoted from the rank of SP to Inspector General (IG), because his promotion as DIG had been held due to framed inquiries against him.
2005 suspension
In 2005, Amitabh was suspended while posted as the superintendent of police (SP) at Gonda. He was accused of issuing an arms licence to criminals. He defended himself arguing that he only cleared the files that had been already vetted by other officers and the district administration.
2006 suspension
In 2006, some criminals kidnapped a jeweller from Padam town, which comes under the purview of
Jasrana
Jasrana is a nagar panchayat (a form of an urban political unit in India comparable to a municipality) in Firozabad district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh
Geography and atmosphere
Jasrana is located at . It has an average elevation ...
police station. Accusing the police of slackness, the locals organised a protest and demanded action against the officer in-charge. Thakur was the SP of Ferozabad at that time. In response to the protests, he transferred the Jasrana police station in-charge VK Trivedi, for dereliction of duty.
Ramvir Singh Yadav, a Samajwadi Party leader and the
MLA, asked Thakur to move Trivedi back to Jasrana. However, Thakur refused to oblige.
Some days later, Thakur came to Yadav's native village Paidath, to review the security arrangements for a state minister's visit to the village. There, Yadav and his supporters allegedly threatened and manhandled him over Trivedi's transfer. Seven constables deputed in the security of Yadav also supported Yadav, and threatened Thakur's staff. Outnumbered, Thakur and his staff fled and stopped at the
Eka
Eka or EKA may refer to:
People
* Eka Budianta (born 1956), Indonesian poet
* Eka Darville (born 1989), Australian actor
* Eka Gigauri (born 1978), Georgian activist
* Eka Gurtskaia (born ), Georgian beauty pageant titleholder
* Eka Kurniawan ...
police station to lodge an
FIR
Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family (biology), family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North America, North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The ...
. The officer in-charge there initially refused to lodge an FIR against the MLA, and relented after "much persuasion".
Ramvir was cleared of any wrongdoing, after the witnesses against him backtracked.
2008 case against the state government
In April 2008, Thakur was selected for the four-year
Fellow Programme in Management
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is a statutory body, and a national-level council for technical education, under the Department of Higher Education. Established in November 1945 first as an advisory body and later on in ...
(FPM) at
IIM Lucknow. Between April 2008 and March 2009, he sent three letters to the state government's Principal Secretary (Home) and the police DGP to grant him a study leave for the course. After failing to receive a response, he approached the Lucknow Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal in April 2009. The Tribunal ordered the state government to make a decision on his leave request within two weeks. When the government still didn't respond to his application, he filed a contempt petition with the Tribunal and also moved the High Court against the government. In May 2009, the government issued a letter, rejecting Thakur's request for study leave, on the basis that he had not sought permission from his immediate supervisor before opting for the course. The letter stated that the government would be able to grant him a leave for a maximum of one year. Thakur then again approached the Tribunal. Subsequently, the government sanctioned him a two-year leave.
2015 suspension
In December 2014, Nutan Thakur filed a complaint against the state's mining minister
Gayatri Prasad Prajapati
Gayatri Prasad Prajapati was an Indian politician. He was convicted of rape, criminal conspiracy, and criminal intimidation.
In 2021 he was sentenced to 5yr jail by Allahabad High court.
He was a former cabinet minister in the government of Utt ...
, before the
Lok Ayukta (anti-corruption ombudsman). She alleged that the minister was involved in illegal mining activities. Thakur approached the Central Government, seeking protection for his family.
In January 2015, a woman filed a rape case against Amitabh Thakur, while he was posted as IG (Civil Defence). The woman alleged that Nutan Thakur promised her assistance in getting a government job, and asked her to come to the Thakurs' residence in Gomti Nagar, where she was allegedly raped. The Thakurs dismissed the complaint as bogus, saying that it had been filed and framed in response to Nutan's complaint against the minister, and that the complainant was related to a Samajwadi Party leader.
On 10 July 2015, Thakur got a phone call from the state's former Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader
Mulayam Singh Yadav. He alleged that Yadav had threatened him over the phone call. He released the audio of the phone call, in which Yadav is allegedly heard saying the following sentences:
* "You were very insolent...Everyone took you inside the school and wanted to beat you. I was the one who saved you." (referring to the incident in which Thakur was manhandled by Jasrana MLA Ramveer Singh Yadav)
* "There could be more dire consequences, I am telling you. I went to Patna where your family members requested me to help and save you."
* "I am telling you, aap sudhar jaaiye (mend your ways). This is all I want to say."
Thakur alleged that Mulayam Singh was unhappy about the complaint lodged by his wife Nutan against the state minister
Gayatri Prasad Prajapati
Gayatri Prasad Prajapati was an Indian politician. He was convicted of rape, criminal conspiracy, and criminal intimidation.
In 2021 he was sentenced to 5yr jail by Allahabad High court.
He was a former cabinet minister in the government of Utt ...
.
11 July 2015, Thakur presented a complaint before Hazratganj police station for registration of FIR against Mulayam Singh as regards the alleged phone threat, which the Police refused to register.
On the contrary, in the same night of 11 July, a rape case was registered against Thakur by the Lucknow police at Gomtinagar police station, based on the complaint filed in January.
Two days later, on 13 July, the state government suspended Thakur, accusing him of "indiscipline, holding anti-government views, dereliction of duty and violating service rules". The government also alleged that he had misused government resources and given incomplete information about his assets in his annual declaration of property, which the government hasn't been able to prove yet.
Almost immediately after this, a complaint was presented against Thakur before
Lokayukta, UP alleging that Thakur had amassed huge wealth, and a probe was sought into the matter. The then Lokayukta sent a report to State Government, which Thakur alleged to be a biased report under Government pressure. A Vigilance enquiry was also initiated against Thakur at the same time, in which the Vigilance Department recommended registration of FIR against him. An FIR for Disproportionate Assets was registered against Thakur at Thana Gomtinagar.
Investigations were held in both the rape case and Disproportionate assets case and both the charges proved to be incorrect. In the rape case, the Police not only exonerated Thakur, it also charged the complainant of registering a false FIR. Similarly, in the Disproportionate assets case, the investigating agency,
EOW, concluded that the charges were incorrect and Thakur had property much lesser than his known sources of income.
Compulsory Retirement
Thakur was given compulsory retirement in March 2021, along with 02 other IPS officers of Uttar Pradesh Cadre, with 07 years of his service still left. Thakur called this an act of political vendetta and alleged that he was being retired merely for his activism and honest working.
Arrest
In August 2021, Thakur announced that he would be contesting forthcoming Assembly elections against Chief Minister
Yogi Adityanath. Almost immediately after this, he was arrested in August 2021,. He was granted bail in March 2022 and came out of Jail on Bail almost immediately after the Assembly result.
Activism
Anti-corruption
Amitabh Thakur is the founder of the
National RTI Forum, a
grassroots
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
anti-
corruption
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
organisation in
India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
that advocates for government openness under the terms of the 2005
Right to Information Act
The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of RTI Act, an ...
. The organisation is based in
Lucknow
Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and divisio ...
.
Human rights
Thakur had formed Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS), a human rights organisation.
He recorded the
dying declaration of journalist
Jagendra Singh
Murder of Jagendra Singh refers to the killing of a journalist in India by setting him on fire on 1 June 2015. Jagendra Singh was an Indian journalist from Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He died on 8 June 2015 from burn injuries. He had been se ...
; the video allegedly indicated the involvement of a state's minister in Singh's death.
Other issues
In January 2011, Thakur filed an FIR against
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...
and some of its users, for offensive comments against
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure ...
in a Facebook group called "I hate Gandhi". Facebook banned the group a couple of days later.
PILs
Amitabh Thakur and his wife Nutan have filed over 500
RTI
RTI or Rti may refer to:
Broadcasters
* Radiodiffusion Television Ivoirienne, state broadcaster of Ivory Coast
* Radio Taiwan International, a radio station in Taiwan
* Reti Televisive Italiane, an Italian broadcaster and subsidiary of Media ...
applications and 150
Public Interest Litigations (PILs).
A number of PILs filed by the Thakurs resulted in action.
As a writer
Thakur has co-authored two books, and has compiled two collections of poems. He and his wife are working on a book on
Arvind Kejriwal
Arvind Kejriwal (Hindi: �ɾʋin̪d̪ ked͡ʒɾiːʋaːl born 16 August 1968) is an Indian politician, former bureaucrat, and activist who is the 7th and current Chief Minister of Delhi since February 2015. Currently, he is the national co ...
.
His book ''Fresh Brew - Chronicles of Business and Freedom'', co-authored with Amit Haralalka, traces the careers of 25 IIM Lucknow alumni who turned entrepreneurs.
Personal life
Amitabh Thakur is married to
Nutan Thakur, an advocate and a social activist. The couple has two children - a daughter named Tanaya and a son named Aditya, both law graduates. While Tanaya graduated from
National Law University Patna
Patna (
), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...
, Aditya graduated from National Law University Lucknow.
Also read
*
Vijay Shankar Pandey, whistle blower IAS
*
Nutan Thakur, Advocate, activist and active member, Adhikar Sena
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thakur, Amitabh
Living people
Indian Police Service officers
Indian police officers
Uttar Pradesh Police
People from Muzaffarpur
Indian anti-corruption activists
IIT Kanpur alumni
Indian Institute of Management Lucknow alumni
Activists from Bihar
All India Services
Year of birth missing (living people)