A local court remanded former IPS officer and Azad Sena president Amitabh Thakur to 14 days judicial custody in a defamation case linked to a social media video. The case arose from a complaint filed at Chowk station.
A local court remanded Amitabh Thakur, president of the Azad Sena and a former IPS officer, to 14 days of judicial custody on Friday regarding a defamation case filed at the Chowk police station.
The ruling was issued by Special Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajeev Mukul Pandey, who ordered Thakur’s incarceration after approving the judicial remand.
The case was initiated by Ambrish Singh, a Varanasi resident and office-bearer of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, who took legal action after Thakur shared a video on social media, alleging Singh’s involvement in criminal activities and claiming it had harmed his reputation.
Thakur’s attorney, Anuj Yadav, contested the remand, arguing that the charges associated with the police’s application for judicial custody carried maximum penalties of less than seven years, making Thakur’s arrest improper under the law.
He referenced Supreme Court directives to support his argument that judicial remand should not be applied in such cases.
Conversely, the prosecution argued that the situation involved a cognizable offense, which justified the judicial remand. After considering arguments from both parties, the court accepted the prosecution’s request and remanded the former IPS officer to jail for 14 days.
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Thakur was apprehended by the UP Police on December 10 in relation to a long-standing alleged land fraud case tied to the allotment of an industrial plot in Deoria from 1999.
The 1992-batch officer arrested at the Shahjahanpur railway station while traveling from Lucknow to Delhi after a complaint concerning the issue was lodged earlier this year, leading to an investigation.
Following his arrest, he was presented in a Deoria court and subsequently remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody.