SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya to file defamation case against Noida Police chief

Lucknow, Aug 12 (IANS) Former BJP minister and now Samajwadi Party (SP) leader, Swami Prasad Maurya has said that he will soon file a defamation case against the Noida Police Commissioner, who had announced that he (Maurya) had provided a VIP car pass to self-proclaimed leader Shrikant Tyagi, without investigating the matter.

"The police commissioner has taken my name without investigation. I will file a defamation claim against the police commissioner. It was the police commissioner and not Shrikant Tyagi who took my name," said Maurya.

He further alleged that since his support base had increased, the BJP was scared and this was the reason why his name was being raised again and again.

"When I was in the BJP, how did Shrikant Tyagi get membership? It should be checked. This is the politics of the BJP, that is why my name was raised. Sometimes in the STF case and sometimes in the Shrikant case. How did he get the pass on his Fortuner car, BJP should tell this," Maurya said.

He also claimed that, "I, myself, was issued the car sticker today. That too of 2022. How can I give the pass to anyone?"

Shrikant Tyagi, arrested on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting a woman in Noida, was seen flaunting a sticker on his vehicle that falsely identified him as an MLA. During questioning, he allegedly revealed that the sticker on his car was provided by Swami Prasad Maurya.

Swami Prasad Maurya earlier staunchly refuted Tyagi's allegation. He accused the BJP, the party Tyagi claimed to be associated with, of misleading the people with lies and deception.

Maurya, who is a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, said he last met Tyagi in 2017. At the time, Tyagi had introduced himself as a BJP leader. Since then, there has been no contact between him and the self-proclaimed BJP worker, asserted Maurya.

"I have not met him for the last four years. Why is the BJP repeatedly saying that I am related to him? He had a photo with several BJP bigwigs. Now that they stand exposed before the public, they are casting blame on others," he charged.

Maurya was a minister in the previous BJP government in the state. He quit the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls earlier this year and joined the Samajwadi Party. He claimed there is a conspiracy afoot to defame him.

"Shrikant had got more than half a dozen security personnel. This is not possible without the grace of the BJP government. Today, when the heat is on him, he is taking the name of Swami Prasad Maurya under a well-thought-out conspiracy," Maurya claimed.

The Noida Police on Tuesday arrested Shrikant Tyagi, who identifies himself on social media as a national executive member of the BJP's Kisan Morcha, along with three others in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district.

After his arrest, Tyagi was sent to 14-day judicial custody. He was booked under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code after he was seen in a video abusing and assaulting a woman for objecting to his alleged illegal construction at a housing society in Noida.