Fresh trouble for UP's suspended IPS officer

In fresh trouble for suspended IPS officer Amitabh Thakur, an RTI activist today complained to Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta accusing him and his wife of having assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.
RTI activist Sanjay Sharma submitted his complaint to Lokayukta N K Mehrotra.
"Sanjay Sharma has submitted 60-70 page complaint today mainly alleging that Thakur misused his position as IG and both, he and his wife, possessed properties disproportionate to their known sources of income," a Lokayukta office source said.
Mehrotra, when contacted, said that he has not yet seen the complaint in detail and would start action only after an investigation.

Activist Sharma said that he has given the complaint on three points and requested for a probe into the sources of income through which the couple bought "massive properties".
"Prima facie it appears that both the husband and wife posses some 57,000 square feet of residential land which cannot be bought by an honest public servant and so I have demanded that the sources of the income through which it has been acquired should also be probed," he said.

Thakur yesterday submitted details of his immovable assets as directed by the state government.
According to the details, Thakur has one house at Gomti Nagar and a plot in Muzaffarpur (Bihar) -- which he "got before" joining the Indian Police Service (IPS).

While his wife has three properties in Sitamarhi and Patna in Bihar and six properties in Lucknow, "procured through her own income".
Thakur had submitted the details after a notice was slapped on him seeking information about his properties by the UP government.
In the notice sent by IG (Personnel) B P Jogdand on Saturday dated July 16, Thakur was informed that an open inquiry has been initiated against him by the Vigilance Establishment and he needed to present the details of moveable and immovable properties of his own and that of his dependents on six given points by July 19.

In a related development, Thakur's plea for a CBI probe into the rape allegations against him has been referred to DoPT by the Union Home Ministry.
According to his wife Nutan Thakur, an RTI activist, the MHA in a letter dated July 16 sent to Thakur stated that his "request was a subject matter pertaining to Department of Personnel and Training, which was CBI's administrative authority, hence, DoPT is requested to take action as deemed appropriate."
The state home department, meanwhile, appointed an Enquiry Officer to go into the charges framed against Thakur, who dubbed the appointment as "against law" and said he would challenge it in CAT.

Suspended on July 13, Thakur was served a 200-page charge sheet on July 15 charging him with dereliction of duty, arbitrariness and indiscipline, and he submitted a 30-page reply saying he was "not at fault".