IPS officer Amitabh Thakur found 'not guilty' in DA case
Lucknow, Sep 13: After more than three years of investigation against senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Amitabh Thakur, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has found him "not guilty" in a disproportionate assets (DA) case, an official said on Thursday.
Investigating Officer, Superintendent of Police (EOW) D.P.N. Pandey, found in his investigation that total earnings of Amitabh between 1992 and 2015 was Rs 1.30 crore, while the value of his total assets and expenditure was Rs 90 lakh -- much lower than his earnings.
The EOW also found that Amitabh's wife and activist Nutan Thakur had been financially independent and her earnings during this period was Rs 92 lakh, while her total assets and expenditure was valued at Rs 90 lakh.
So, the EOW recommended closure of the DA case against Amitabh.
The then Samajwadi Party (SP) government had filed a slew of cases against the IPS officer, two days after he filed a complaint on July 11, 2015 against Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's father Mulayam Singh.
The state government initiated a vigilance inquiry against Amitabh, which concluded its probe in less than two months on September 4, 2015, declaring Thakur guilty of owning disproportionate assets.
On September 16, 2015, an FIR (No 746/2015) under Section 13(1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered, which was transferred to the EOW on the orders of Allahabad High Court.
Following delay in investigation, Amitabh had approached the high court which directed completion of investigation in 10 weeks.
Later, he again knocked at the doors of high court over non-compliance of its orders, to which the court issued a contempt notice against the Investigation Officer.
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ISRO successfully conducts second integrated air drop test for Gaganyaan mission
New Delhi (PTI): Space agency ISRO has successfully conducted the second integrated air drop test (IADT-02) for the upcoming Gaganyaan mission at the space station in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.
The system is essential to ensure a safe recovery of the crew module -- the capsule in which astronauts sit during a human flight -- during re-entry and landing.
Union minister Jitendra Singh congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for successfully conducting the test.
"Congratulations #ISRO for the successful accomplishment of Second Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-02) for #Gaganyaan, India's first Human Space flight scheduled next year. The second Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-02) was successfully conducted at Satish Dhawan Space Station Sriharikota," Singh said in a post on X.
The IADT-02 follows the successful completion of the first IADT, which took place on August 24, 2025, at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
Air drop tests recreate the last leg of a spacecraft's return to Earth. An aircraft or helicopter drops the spacecraft from a height to test various systems under different scenarios.
These are the deployment of the parachute system in case the mission is aborted mid-flight, system performance when one parachute fails to open and the spacecraft's orientation and safety during splashdown etc.
In the IADT-02 test, a simulated crew module, weighing about 5.7 tonnes, was lifted by an Indian Air Force Chinook helicopter to an altitude of about three kilometres and released over a designated drop zone in the sea, near the Sriharikota coast.
In a statement, the ISRO said, "Ten parachutes of four types were deployed in a precise sequence during the descent of the crew module, gradually reducing the velocity for safe touchdown. Subsequently, the simulated crew module was successfully recovered in coordination with the Indian Navy."
