Senior police officer of Uttar Pradesh Amitabh Thakur has been booked in a rape case.

Amitabh Thakur, a senior police officer in Uttar Pradesh, has described as "political vendetta" the Lucknow police registering a rape case against him hours after he had filed a complaint against Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is chief of the ruling Samajwadi Party."The rape case registered last night, I consider this a return gift from Mulayam Singh," Mr Thakur, who is Inspector General, Civil Defence, said at a press conference on Sunday. "It is my fault, and my wife's fault that I registered a complaint after Mulayam Singh threatened me," he said.The rape case against Mr Thakur was filed late on Saturday on basis of a complaint lodged earlier this year by a Ghaziabad-based woman. She has alleged that the IPS officer had raped her at his Lucknow home on December 31, when she met him for a job.Mr Thakur alleged that he is being targeted as his wife, RTI activist Nutan Thakur, has filed a police case against UP's mines minister Gayatri Prajapati over his allegedly owning illegal properties.On Saturday, Mr Thakur had alleged that Mulayam Singh had threatened him in a phone call that afternoon. He had also submitted an audio tape of the alleged phone call to the police.The Samajwadi Party said in a statement, "It is regrettable that people of no stature have the temerity to level such allegations... Instead of concentrating on their jobs, some officers are pursuing politics."Senior party leader Shivpal Yadav, Mulayam Singh's younger brother, said, "This is technically a misuse of media... Mulayam is a big leader in UP. If a UP official commits a mistake then Mulayam can scold him.""Whenever the SP government comes to power in UP, law and order completely gets upset," the BJP's Sudhanshu Trivedi said.The Congress, however, took a more lenient view. "Mulayam Singh Yadav is a very sensible person. He might scold the IPS but he never threatens," said senior party leader Manish Tiwari.