Four days after he allegedly assaulted and abused a fellow female resident of a posh Noida society, local politician Shrikant Tyagi was nabbed by Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday from Meerut. He along with his driver and two other close associates have been sent to 14-day judicial custody by a local court.
Addressing a press conference, Alok Singh, Commissioner of Noida Police said Tyagi will be proceeded against under the Gangsters Act. Mr Singh said the self-styled politician wanted to take a flight out of Delhi but because of the police alert decided to sneak into Uttarakhand. "We kept him under surveillance, as he moved from Haridwar and Saharanpur to Baghpat and Meerut." Mr. Singh said the fact that Tyagi was in regular touch with his wife and lawyers helped.
The arrest has come after the Noida Police detained Tyagi’s wife for the second time in 48 hours for questioning. A GST team also reached the shops run by Tyagi in the Bhangel market of Noida.
The commissioner said during preliminary interrogation Tyagi revealed that the MLA sticker of the Assembly secretariat on his car was provided by the former Bharatiya Janta Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya. "His charges are being checked." Mr. Singh also said a high-level inquiry committee would also look into how he was provided six gunners by the Ghaziabad police between 2018 and 2020.
So far Noida Police has impounded five high-end cars of Tyagi, one of which has an MLA sticker, valid till 2023 and another has the U.P. government painted on the number plate. Mr. Singh said Tyagi spent more than a lakh rupees each on getting number plates of the coveted 001 series of U.P. 32.
This has come after a photo of Tyagi with former Mr. Maurya surfaced on social media on Tuesday. Mr. Maurya had switched to the Samajwadi Party before the Assembly polls. BJP MLA Atul Garg commented Mr. Maurya brought Tyagi to the BJP as part of the “dowry” when he shifted from Bahujan Samaj Party to the BJP. Mr. Maurya claimed he had never met Tyagi alone and that it was just a courtesy meeting.
Tyagi described himself as a member of the executive council of BJP's Kisan Morcha on his social media but the ruling party distanced itself from him, despite Opposition parties releasing Tyagi's letter of appointment on social media
Tyagi absconded after the last Friday incident where he could be seen heckling a female resident of Omaxe Grande society for questioning him over allegedly encroaching on the common area by planting palm trees. In a video, he could be heard saying in Hindi that if she would touch his plants, he will touch her. On Monday, a bulldozer of the Noida Authority brought down the illegal structure amid cheers.
Gautam Buddha Nagar MP Dr. Mahesh Sharma lauded the arrest of Tyagi and said there was no place in society for those who disrespect women.
Tyagi's lawyer Sushil Tyagi said his client was keen to surrender. Meanwhile, Tyagi's relatives said he was in the wrong but the police turned a minor transgression into something huge for their advantage. A panchayat of the community was organised in the Gejha village of Noida in support of Tyagi.
