Ex-IPS officer Amitabh Thakur sent to 14-day judicial custody in defamation case

Varanasi, Dec 19 (PTI) A local court here on Friday remanded Azad Sena president and former IPS officer Amitabh Thakur to 14 days' judicial custody in connection with a defamation case registered at the Chowk police station.

The order was passed by the court of in-charge Special Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajeev Mukul Pandey, which sent Thakur to jail after granting judicial remand.

Varanasi resident and Hindu Yuva Vahini office-bearer Ambrish Singh had moved court after Thakur posted a video on social media, alleging his involvement in criminal activities, which he claimed tarnished his reputation.

Thakur's counsel Anuj Yadav opposed the remand, arguing that all the charges in the cases for which police were seeking judicial custody carried a maximum punishment of less than seven years and that the arrest was barred in such offences. He cited Supreme Court directions to contend that judicial remand could not be granted in such cases.

The prosecution, however, maintained that the matter pertained to a cognisable offence and that judicial remand was permissible.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the court allowed the judicial remand application and sent the former IPS officer to jail for 14 days.

Thakur was arrested by the UP Police on December 10 in connection with a decades-old alleged land fraud case related to the allotment of an industrial plot in Deoria in 1999.

The 1992-batch officer was taken into custody at Shahjahanpur railway station while travelling from Lucknow to Delhi after a complaint in the matter was filed earlier this year and an investigation was launched. He was subsequently produced in a Deoria court and remanded to 14 days' judicial custody. PTI COR KIS KSS KSS