Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday demoted a senior police officer accused of corruption and shielding a rape accused. As per an order issued by the Home Department, Vidya Kishore Sharma, the then Circle Officer/Deputy Superintendent of Rampur Sadar, has been reverted to his original post of a constable on charges of taking bribe in lieu of shielding a rape accused.
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The matter had caught limelight last year when a woman who claimed to be a victim of gang rape had threatened to self-immolate in a public meeting headed by CM Yogi Adityanath in Rampur. She had alleged that Vinod Yadav, the director of Swami Vivekanand Hospital, and the then Inspector Ganj Ramveer Yadav, had gang-raped her but was set free because he paid a bribe to the probing officials.
Sharma, who was CO City at the time, was allegedly caught on camera taking a bribe of Rs 5 lakh for shielding the accused in the case. The CM had set up a probe team to investigate the allegations. The investigation team headed by ASP Moradabad had held Sharma guilty of corruption after which he was suspended. The cop was also accused of pressurizing the inspector to release the cow slaughterers.
