Gautam Budh Nagar SSP Vaibhav Krishna suspended, several IPS officers transferred in UP

The development comes days after some videos, featuring Gautam Budh Nagar SSP and a woman’s voice in the background, had gone viral on social media.

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday suspended Gautam Budh Nagar SSP Vaibhav Krishna, who had recently landed in a soup after a video featuring him with a woman's voice in the background went viral, and transferred five other IPS officers.

The action was taken after a forensic lab in Gujarat confirmed the authenticity of his video chat with a woman that had gone viral on the social media a few days ago. Krishna had termed the viral video as doctored but the forensic report said that "no sign of edit, alteration, medication, morphing was observed in this video".

Vaibhav Krishna had himself lodged an FIR in the case of the viral video and ADG, Meerut zone was probing the case. The official had sent the video for forensic examination.

The Gautam Budh Nagar SSP reportedly also leaked a confidential letter that he had written to the state government accusing five officers of conniving with certain builders, extortionists and local journalists to ensure "transfers and postings" in exchange for money.

UP DGP OP Singh had said last week that this amounted to a violation of service rules.

Krishna, a 2000 batch IPS officer, had also accused an ASP-rank officer, a Provincial Civil Services (PCS) officer, four inspectors, a sub-inspector and three constables in his letter of extending favours to these middlemen.

He had also provided the DGP with video recordings and clips in support of his allegations. An investigation into his allegations is being conducted by IG, Meerut, Alok Singh.

The IPS officer had claimed that the "morphed" video was leaked to tarnish his image.

He also alleged that he was being targeted because he had begun a probe to expose the nexus between the IPS officers, journalists and builders.

The state government also transferred 13 IPS officers, including the police chiefs of Banda, Sultanpur, Rampur and Ghaziabad, who had been accused of corruption by Vaibhav Krishna. All these officers have been given non-district postings.

These officers include Ajay Pal Sharma (Rampur), Sudhir Singh (Ghaziabad), Ganesh Prasad Saha (Banda), Himanshu (Sultanpur) and Rajiv Narain Misra, who was posted as SP, STF in Lucknow.

Meanwhile, Lucknow SSP Kalanidhi Naithani has been transferred in the same position to Ghaziabad.