Police officials of particular caste being targeted: Akhilesh Yadav

LUCKNOW: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today accused the Yogi Adityanath government of targeting police officials of a "particular caste", after IPS officer Himanshu Kumar was suspended for "indiscipline".

Kumar was recently in news for his controversial tweets accusing senior police officers of targeting subordinates of a particular caste.

"Only policemen of one particular caste are being suspended and transferred and everybody knows about it," said Akhilesh, whose party had all along been accused by political opponents of working in the interest of a particular caste.


The Samajwadi Party chief was interacting with mediapersons ahead of a national executive meet.

Earlier, a Home Department spokesman said, "IPS officer of the 2010 batch, Himanshu Kumar has been suspended for indiscipline."

Though Himanshu Kumar's tweet of March 22, that stirred a controversy in Uttar Pradesh, has since been deleted, its screen shot is still doing the rounds.

The deleted tweet said, "There is now a rush among senior officers to suspend/send to reserve lines all police personnel who have 'Yadav' surname."

In another tweet, Kumar said, "Why DGP office forcing officers to punish people in the name of caste?"

Later, Kumar put out another tweet saying, "Some people have misunderstood my tweet. I support the initiative of the government."

Kumar was attached with the Director General of Police's (DGP) office in Lucknow. He had been shifted to DGP's office by the Election Commission.

He was earlier posted as a Superintendent of Police in Manipuri and Firozabad, the region regarded as SP bastion.

After his suspension, Kumar tweeted, "Truth alone triumphs."

The IPS officer was in the news last July for filing a case against his estranged wife, Priya Singh, in Noida. He had alleged that she had hacked his e-mail accounts to obtain bank statements and personal details.