The suspension with immediate effect came on a day when Thakur, an IG-level officer, approached the Union Home Ministry in Delhi seeking a CBI probe into the rape case filed against him after he lodged a complaint against Mulayam for threatening him.
An official release issued in Lucknow said the state government has suspended Thakur with immediate effect on prima facie charges of dereliction of duty, indiscipline, taking an anti-establishment approach and flouting high court orders.
Reacting to the suspension order, Thakur said he will challenge it in a court of law. "I will bring the matter before the court concerned," he said.
Thakur met Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Anant Kumar Singh and also sought central force protection for himself and his wife and social activist Nutan Thakur.
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"Mulayam Singh Yadav had threatened me with dire consequences. So, today I have met the Additional Secretary and sought security for me and my wife by central forces," he told reporters outside the North Block, housing the MHA, in Delhi earlier in the day.
UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is Mulayam's son, saw "nothing wrong" in his father "scolding" a senior IPS officer in the state.
"When Mulayam Singh Yadav can scold the chief minister, there is nothing wrong in his scolding an official," Akhilesh said to pointed questions by newspersons in Farrukhabad.
Another senior UP minister Azam Khan demanded that the charges of rape levelled against Thakur be probed thoroughly. "He has committed an immoral act and should not be spared," Khan said in Jhansi.
Terming the allegation of rape as "completely false", Thakur said as per the complaint against him, his wife had helped in the alleged crime and it took place at his home.
"No wife will help her husband to rape a woman. Besides my children also live in my house which is very small. Let the CBI probe the allegation," he said.
Thakur said Mulayam threatened him after his wife Nutan filed a complaint before the UP Lokayukta against state Mines minister Gayatri Prajapati.