UP: BJP Leader Puneet Tyagi Resigns After Actress Accuses Him Of Sexual Exploitation, Says 'I'm Totally Innocent'

The UP BJP leader claimed that the allegations against him are "baseless" and that he was "totally innocent". Tyagi said that he has resigned since he doesn't want the party's image to be sullied.

BJP leader Puneet Tyagi, who is the party's city unit chief in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, resigned on Wednesday, October 16, after an actress alleged that he had sexually exploited her. However, Tyagi denied the allegations levelled by the actress, calling them "baseless" and said he was resigning from his post as he did not want the BJP’s "image to be sullied".

The Mumbai-based actress, who claims to have acted in nearly 250 Gujarati, Bhojpuri and Hindi films, made the allegations in a video on social media. She hails from Uttar Pradesh. In a video posted on X, Facebook and other social media platforms, she alleged that the BJP leader had sexually exploited her over a long period, which caused mentally harassed her.

"The BJP leader had developed a rapport with my…son by giving him gifts frequently and then started sending me bouquets and other gifts. I had been living with my son in Mumbai after ending ties with my husband. The BJP leader’s intimacy with my son and good behaviour with me had prompted me to think that I had found support in my life. We had intimate relations for a few months and later he distanced himself," the actress claimed in the video.

She also alleged that she had lodged a complaint with the UP chief minister, Prime Minister Modi, and top BJP leaders, but "no one paid heed".

Dismissing the allegation against him as "baseless", Tyagi sent his resignation to the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh chief Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh.

"Still I am submitting my resignation because I do not want the image of our party to be sullied by statements like this… The truth will come out in the open soon and I am ready to accept any decision taken by my party leadership. I am totally innocent," Tyagi said in his resignation letter.

Meanwhile, Saharanpur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rohit Singh Sajwan said that no police complaint has been lodged yet in connection with the matter.

"We do not know anything in this regard. Had there been a complaint, we would have investigated it properly," SSP Sajwan said.

The BJP leaders in Saharanpur have remained tight-lipped on the issue. "The party leadership will decide the future course of action," Indian Express quoted a BJP leader as saying.