COURT ORDERS FIR AGAINST MSY ON THAKUR’S PLEA

A city court on Wednesday directed the police to lodge an FIR against Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for allegedly threatening inspector general (IG)-rank IPS officer Amitabh Thakur over the phone. The court of chief judicial magistrate Som Prabha Mishra asked the police to probe the matter properly and also apprise the court about the findings.

LUCKNOW: A city cour t on Wednesday directed the police to lodge an FIR against Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for allegedly threatening inspector general (IG)-rank IPS officer Amitabh Thakur over the phone.

The court of chief judicial magistrate Som Prabha Mishra asked the police to probe the matter properly and also apprise the court about the findings.

Thakur, the complainant, had moved the court after the police had rejected his application for an FIR against Mulayam, saying that the allegations were not substantiated.

The court, however, accepted Thakur’s application under Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, directing Hazratganj station house officer Vijay Mal Yadav to file the FIR under relevant sections and probe the matter. Section 156(3) of the CrPC empowers a magistrate to direct the police to file an FIR.

The court observed that after going through the facts provided by Thakur, it appeared to be a case under Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code (punishment for criminal intimidation). The order stated that according to report of the SHO, Hazratganj, the application was moved for gaining publicity. However, the report did not inform whether the FIR was registered or not.

Thakur, who has been locked in a tussle with the state government after he submitted an application against the SP chief, was served a 200-page charge sheet and a vigilance inquiry was initiated against him in July.

The IPS officer had stirred a political storm by releasing the text and audio of the purported phone conversation with Mulayam on July 10 in which the SP chief is allegedly threatening him. He registered a complaint against Mulayam at the Hazratganj police station on July 11 and later the police stated that the allegations were not substantiated during the inquiry and the application was rejected. He moved court for registration of the FIR thereafter.

Incidentally, an FIR of rape by a Ghaziabad woman was lodged against Thakur and his social activist wife Nutan Thakur with Gomti Nagar police on July 11 only a few hours after he had submitted his complaint against the SP chief. The UP government had suspended Thakur on July 13, hours after he approached the Union home ministry seeking a CBI probe into the rape case slapped against him.