NOIDA: Member of the Legislative Council Swamy Prasad Maurya faces heat as Gautam Buddh Nagar Commissioner of Police said that it was the former minister who provided abuser Shrikant Tyagi with stickers of MLA to paste on his vehicles.
A video of Tyagi abusing and manhandling a woman resident of Grand Omaxe Society went viral on social media. He was on the run for four days before police nabbed him from Meerut on Tuesday morning.
“During the interrogation, Shrikant told us Swamy Prasad Maurya had provided the stickers,” CP Singh revealed. “Some stickers of the UP government were also pasted in his vehicles. A total of five vehicles were seized – two Toyota Fortuners, two Tata Safaris and one Honda Civic. We are verifying everything,” Singh added.
Maurya was a minister in the previous Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh. He switched allegiance to the Samajwadi Party before the elections.
Commissioner Singh also said Tyagi had gotten the VIP registration numbers on his vehicles through bidding. “He had bought the VIP numbers from the authorities for over ₹1 lakh each,” Singh said.
On the question of the gunner provided to Tyagi, CP Singh said a high-level team of UP police is conducting the probe. Tyagi was enjoying a security cover from Ghaziabad Police.
Tyagi was arrested on Tuesday morning in Meerut along with three of his associates – Nukul Tyagi, Rahul and Sanjay.
ACS (Home) Awnish Awasthi has announced ₹2 lakh and the Commissioner himself announced ₹1 lakh as a reward to the team that had nabbed Tyagi.
The team was led by ACP Abdul Qadir and Inspector Mahipraj, Sub Inspector Sujeet, Navshesh and Rohit.
Tyagi was produced in the court in the evening, from where he was sent to jail. He also told the media that he felt guilty about what he had done. “Afsoos hai, aggressive ho gaya tha”, Tyagi told the media personnel while being produced in court.