My husband is a BJP member, claims Shrikant Tyagi's wife

Lucknow: Anu Tyagi, the wife of Shrikant Tyagi, said on Wednesday that her husband was a member of the BJP which the party leadership had earlier refused.

After being on the run for days, Shrikant Tyagi was arrested for assaulting a woman in Noida.

Talking to reporters, Anu Tyagi alleged that her family was being harassed at the behest of BJP MP Mahesh Sharma.

When asked about Mahesh Sharma's denial that Shrikant Tyagi was a BJP member, she said: "My husband was a BJP member. This entire drama is being played out at the behest of Mahesh Sharma. He abused the police commissioner. That's why the police were misbehaving with us."

She said, "My husband would have surrendered the first day but we were only waiting for a lawyer so that we could take appropriate legal recourse. Had I not been detained at the police station, my husband would have surrendered the very next day as I could have engaged a lawyer and sought legal help," she said.

She also said that Shrikant Tyagi had surrendered and was not caught in any raid.

Anu Tyagi alleged that her staffers were subjected to third-degree torture, adding that her children were also being harassed.

She said: "I was not tortured physically, but I was harassed mentally. The police misbehaved in every way possible, even though I was fully cooperating in the investigation. Where is Yogi ji now? Am I not a woman?"

"At the police station, I begged them to let me go as my kids were alone at home. No cop was here either," she said.

Shrikant Tyagi was arrested by Noida police on Tuesday for abusing and assaulting a woman at his housing society in Noida. His arrest came a day after bulldozers razed the illegally constructed structures outside his house at the Grand Omaxe housing society in Noida's Sector-93B.

IANS with edits