Rewarded for doing duty: UP lady cop on being transferred after duel with BJP leader

Lucknow: UP police officer Shreshtha Thakur, transferred out days after a war of words with a BJP leader, has said that she has been ‘rewarded’ for doing her duty.

Thakur, who had sought to fine a BJP member in Bulandshahr, has been transferred to Bahraich as its deputy SP, a UP police spokesperson said.

"I have been rewarded," she wrote on her Facebook timeline, and though she later deleted the post, it had by then gone viral. Media reports said the transfer decision was taken after a BJP delegation met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The local leaders reportedly urged the Uttar Pradesh government to take action against her. Thakur, who was posted as deputy SP in Bulandshahr, was among 244 Provincial Police Officers transferred by the UP government on July 1.

The police officer hit the headlines when she had a public argument with BJP's Syana city president Mukesh Bhardwaj. The wordy duel between Thakur and Bhardwaj started after the police officer slapped a fine on a local BJP worker, Pramod Kumar, for riding a motorcycle ‘without any documents, number plate and a helmet’, on June 22.

Kumar then called up some BJP office-bearers, who landed up at the spot. Among them was Bhardwaj, who got into a lengthy argument with her.

A video clip that captured the altercation was shared widely on social media sites. In the video, Thakur was seen telling the BJP leader that she would ask the police not to check any vehicles if he got a letter from the chief minister saying so.

After the transfer, she posted a couplet on the social networking site. "Wherever I go, there will be light," the post- which she later deleted- said.