Basic Principles of Policing

All through his career, Amitabh Thakur worked for the cause of transparency and accountability of the system. He also worked for people friendly policing, giving highest importance to grievance redressal of the poor and the downtrodden.

In this process, he also got deeply engaged in internal police reforms. He particularly worked for betterment of the service conditions of subordinate police officers. He advocated for better internal social and functional environment in police. He also advocated reduction of power distance in police system and closer interaction between superior and subordinate rank police officers. For all this, he strongly advocated for creation of Subordinate officers Police Associations.

Important Events in Police Career

Amitabh Thakur had many clashes with different political and administrative masters, because of his strict and non-compromising approach.

Clash with Mulayam Singh Yadav government

In 2006, Amitabh was posted as SP of Firozabad district. There he refused to obey some of the wrongful dictates of then MLA Ramvir Singh Yadav. Ramveer Singh was a close relative of then Chief Minister, UP and Samajwadi Party Supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. This finally led to an incidence of alleged assault and manhandling with Amitabh Thakur. Mulayam Singh Yadav clearly told Amitabh not to register any case in this matter. Even then he got a First Information Report (FIR) registered in this matter at Eka police station. This led to Amitabh suffering at the hands of Mulayam Singh Government.^[9][6]

Clash with Mayawati government

Amitabh Thakur had another altercation with Government in 2008–09. At that time, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) suprempo Mayawati was the Chief Minister. Amitabh was selected for the four-year Fellow Programme in Management (FPM) at IIM Lucknow through the prestigious Common Admission Test (CAT). He approached the Government to grant him a study leave for the course. The Home Department refused the study leave merely to harass Amitabh. Amitabh approached the Lucknow Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal and got Extraordinary leave (i.e., leave without salary) sanctioned. He joined IIM Lucknow and stayed there for 02 years without any salary. He completed his FPM course and came back to service. Later he won his study leave case from the Central Administrative Tribunal and Allahabad High Court. Finally the State Government was forced to give his the entire salary for this period in June 2012. This study leave case is regarded as an important struggle in service matter issues.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Clash with Akhilesh Yadav government

Amitabh Thakur had his third set of direct altercations with Government in 2014–2017. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister at that time. In December 2014, Thakur's wife Dr Nutan Thakur filed a complaint against the state's mining minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, before the Lok Ayukta (anti-corruption ombudsman).^[14] She alleged that the minister was involved in illegal mining activities.^[15] Thakur approached the Central Government, seeking protection for his family.^[16]

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.^[17]

On 10 July 2015, Amitabh got a phone call from 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 certain sentences of threatening nature:^[16][18] Thakur alleged that Mulayam Singh was unhappy about the complaint lodged by his wife Nutan against the state minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati.^[18]

On 11 July 2015, Amitabh presented a complaint before Hazratganj police station for registration of FIR against Mulayam Singh as regards the alleged phone threat. The Police refused to register. But in the same night of 11 July, a rape case was registered against Amitabh and his wife Nutan by the Lucknow police at Gomtinagar police station. This FIR was based on the same old complaint presented in January.^[16] 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.^[6]

This was followed by rapid State action against Amitabh. On 13 July, Thakur was suspended. Almost immediately after this, Vigilance enquiry was initiated against him as regards alleged disproportionate assets An FIR for Disproportionate Assets was also registered against him at Thana Gomtinagar in September 2015.^{[19][20][21][22][23][24]}

Later Investigations were held in both the rape case and Disproportionate assets case. During investigation, 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 concluded that the charges were incorrect and Thakur had property much lesser than his known sources of income.^{[25][26][27][28]}

Clash with Yogi Adityanath government

Amitabh Thakur also had direct altercations during the rule of Bhartiya Janata Party Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. There was a history of previous conflicts between the two. Amitabh had previously been posted in and around Yogi Adityanath's place of activity, Gorakhpur. The two had many altercations during Thakur's posting as Superintendent of Police in Deoria, Basti and Maharajganj districts. In 2007 Yogi Adityanath was arrested on serious charges related with hate speech and disturbance of law and order. This had led to riots in and around Gorakhpur, including in Maharajganj. Hindu Yuva Vahini of Yogi Adityanath was generally believed to be the force behind these law and order disturbances. Amitabh had taken extremely stern action during these riots. After coming out of jail, Yogi Adityanath had threatened Thakur of dire consequences. There was a 1999 murder case against Yogi Adityanath related with Pachrukhiya in Maharajganj. A Policeman had also been murdered in this case. Yogi Adityanath was a named accused in this case. The case had long been pending with CID. It got transferred to Maharajganj at the same time when Amitabh Thakur was SP Maharajganj. The moment Amitabh initiated its enquiry, he got immense pressure from various powerful corners. He continued his investigation but got transferred midway.^{[29][30][31][32][33][34][35]}

Compulsory Retirement

It was with this background that Yogi Adityanath government recommended compulsory retirement of Amitabh Thakur and Amitabh was given compulsory retirement in March 2021, with 07 years of his service still left. When Amitabh sought information about this retirement from Ministry of Home Affairs, it denied the information. Amitabh has challenged this retirement in Central Administrative Tribunal Lucknow bench where it is pending.^{[36][37][38][39][40]}