IPS officer Thakur writes to PM Modi over suspension for 'working more'

Lucknow: Suspended IPS officer Amitabh Thakur has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that he has been suspended not for dereliction of duty or impropriety in official work but "for working more" and sought his intervention in the matter.

In a letter sent to the PM through the state government yesterday, Thakur said he was suspended in July this year and given a chargesheet levelling 15 charges against him, none of which were related to his work as Inspector general (civil defence), but with him assisting people in getting justice or for his social works.

He said that though he presented his reply within 24 hours of the suspension but has not been reinstated till date.

He said the suspension and chargesheet made him remember the Prime Minister's statement during his China visit where he had said that he was being criticised for working more, Thakur said in a statement here quoting his letter to Modi.

Addressing the Indian community in Shanghai during his China tour on May 16, 2015, PM Modi had said, "People are asking why is Modi travelling to so many countries... If you work less, criticism is normal.

"If you keep sleeping, criticism is normal. But it is my bad luck that I am being criticised for working more."

Thakur has now requested the PM to get the matter inquired at his end and give him justice.

The officer was suspended in July soon after he lodged a complaint against Mulayam Singh Yadav, president of the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, for allegedly threatening him over phone. Thakur had released the purported audio clip to the media.

The suspended IPS officer had alleged that he got the threat call because his social activist wife Nutan Thakur had raised the issue of corruption by a minister in state government, considered close to the SP chief.