The Allahabad High Court on Thursday, 22 September, granted bail to alleged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shrikant Tyagi. He is expected to walk out of jail on Friday.
Tyagi came under fire after a video of him misbehaving with a woman in Noida's Grand Omaxe housing society went viral, following her objections to his ground-floor house encroaching upon the society's premises. He claimed to be a leader in the BJP's Kisan Morcha, but the party denied that he was even a member.
Earlier, a Noida sessions court had granted bail to Tyagi in three separate matters but had denied bail under the Gangster Act. A subsequent bail application was made in the Allahabad High Court, which the court accepted on Thursday.
While Tyagi was absconding after being charged under IPC Section 354 (assault or use of criminal force on any woman, intending to outrage), the Noida authority demolished the encroachment outside his house using a bulldozer on 8 August.
After Tyagi was arrested, he apologised for the incident and said that the woman was "like his sister."
The Case Against Tyagi
In a video that had gone viral, Tyagi was seen arguing with a woman resident of the Noida housing society after she raised objections against planting some trees by the alleged BJP leader, citing a violation of rules.
The woman said, "Shrikant Tyagi lives on the ground floor in this society. He was encroaching upon the plants here and I asked him to remove the plants. At this, he said, 'If you touch the plants then I will touch you.' He abused me a lot and abused my husband and my child."
He was charged under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 354 (assault or use of criminal force on any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty).
Later, Sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), and 447 (punishment for criminal trespass) of the IPC were added to the First Information Report (FIR).
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)