Viral ‘objectionable’ WhatsApp status on Akhilesh Yadav: 6 UP policemen suspended
A constable from Firozabad posted the content originally while the others shared it; more cops likely in the line of fire as probe still on
A WhatsApp status with “objectionable” remarks against Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has led to action against six cops in Uttar Pradesh.
The six constables, including one from Firozabad who posted the content originally while the others shared it, have been suspended.
The action came within 24 hours of a complaint from the state's main opposition party.
The comments had gone viral on Facebook and WhatsApp, and possibly on other social networks, after which party officials led by district unit chief Shivraj Singh Yadav met the Firozabad district police chief, Senior Superintendent of Police Saurabh Dixit. He ordered an investigation by the respective area incharge, HT's Hindi daily Hindustan reported.
The original post was made by constable Pradeep Thakur deployed in Shikohabad.
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Within 24 hours, by Friday afternoon, the area police's circle officer Chanchal Tyagi found the allegations to be true. He named the five other constables for “making the post go viral”: head constable Kuldeep, and constables Rahul, Amit, Arun and Saurabh.
They were all posted in Narkhi, Shikohabad and other offices but were currently on duty in Ayodhya. Besides their suspension, action would follow on other cops as the investigation is ongoing, said the CO.
Akhilesh Yadav is currently a Lok Sabha member from Kannauj, and the leader of the party in the House. A former chief minister, he was the leader of opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly after losing power in the state in 2022 until becoming an MP in 2024. His party, in alliance with the Congress, had bucked poll punditry to perform well in UP in the Lok Sabha election – seen as a significant factor in the BJP's failure to get parliamentary majority on its own.
