Court seeks UP govt response in Shrikant Tyagi bail plea

Tyagi was arrested on August 9 by Noida police in Meerut, days after a video emerged of him misbehaving with a woman at a Noida residential society. He was booked under Sections 354 (outraging modesty of woman and assault), 447 (criminal trespass), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. The police later filed an FIR against him under the Gangster Act after a group of men, allegedly his supporters, barged into the housing society, seeking the woman complainant’s arrest. Tyagi was also accused of using UP government stickers on his vehicles, allegedly in an attempt to “intimidate”, and a case of impersonation was also registered against him.

Justice Mayank Kumar Jain fixed the next date of hearing as October 17.

Tyagi was given bail in three cases by a local court but it was denied in the case relating to the Gangster Act. Tyagi had then moved the High Court.

Denying bail to him earlier, the Special Judge of the local court had relied on Section 19(4) of The Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, and observed that the Act is a “special law” and a “self-contained Act”. Section 19(4) states, “Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code, no person accused of an offence punishable under this Act or any rule made thereunder shall, if in custody, be released on bail or on his own bond unless: (a) the Public Prosecutor has been given an opportunity to oppose the application for such release, and (b) where the Public Prosecutor opposes the application, the Court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of such offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail.”

(An earlier version of this report stated that Tyagi had been granted bail. The report has since been updated.)