Politician Shrikant Tyagi, who was seen in a video assaulting a woman at a housing society in Noida, expressed regret regarding the incident on Tuesday and said it was an attempt to politically decimate him, ANI reported. Tyagi, who was arrested from Meerut after dodging police for four days, was sent to 14-day judicial custody.
"I express my regret on the incident (assaulting and abusing woman in Noida society). She is like my sister, the incident is political and was done to politically decimate me," ANI quoted Tyagi as saying.
Three aides of Tyagi, 34, were also arrested for providing support to him since he fled Noida on Friday. Tyagi has been booked under the stringent Gangsters Act, among several other charges including assault, criminal intimidation and cheating.
READ | 12 Police Teams, Two States, Four Days: How 'BJP Worker' Shrikant Tyagi Was Finally Caught
Tyagi has claimed to be the national executive member of the BJP's Kisan Morcha and the national co-coordinator of its Yuva Samiti. However, BJP has denied any links with him.
Last week, a video went viral on social media showing Tyagi hurling expletives and assaulting a woman at Noida's Grand Omaxe after she objected to him planting trees in the common area of the housing society.
Addressing a press conference, Noida Police Commissioner Alok Singh said Tyagi was held from Meerut bypass after police received information about his possible movement to Gautam Buddh Nagar to surrender in a local court.
Alok Singh said 12 teams were formed to arrest Tyagi after the woman lodged a complaint on August 5. He said Tyagi first went to the airport in Delhi but by that time the video had gone viral and he changed his plan fearing that he would be caught.
Tyagi then went to Meerut, Muzaffarnar and then to Rishikesh and Haridwar in Uttarakhand over the next two days as he kept changing his locations, cars and devices, including mobile phones, to evade being tracked.
In the meantime, Noida Police declared him "absconding" and announced a reward of Rs 25,000 on his arrest.
"However, with the help of technical and human intelligence and CCTV, we kept following him. His asylum seekers were tracked and finally Tyagi was arrested along with his three associates," Singh said.
The commissioner said five cars belonging to Tyagi and his wife have been impounded. One of the cars had a sticker that is given to MLAs of UP and had the symbol of the state government.
"He also had a sticker on one of his vehicles which is given to honourable MLAs. Tyagi told police during questioning that this sticker was provided to him by his associate Swami Prasad Maurya," Singh said.
Maurya, who was a minister in the previous BJP government in UP, had quit the party just ahead of the Assembly election earlier this year and joined the Samajwadi Party.
Meanwhile, the DGP UP police announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh and the additional chief secretary (home) announced a reward of Rs 2 lakh for the Noida police team involved in the case, PTI reported.
(With inputs from agencies)