Efforts underway to arrest absconding Punjab AAP MLA Pathanmajra, say police sources

Patiala, Sep 5 (PTI) Efforts are underway to arrest Punjab Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, who has been booked in a rape case, sources in the police said.

Pathanmajra continues to remain on the run three days after he escaped from police custody.

The MLA had Thursday moved an anticipatory bail application through his counsel Simranjit Singh Saggu before a court here.

After the hearing on Friday, the court adjourned the matter to September 8.

After the MLA evaded arrest, a team of the Punjab Police's Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF), which is specially trained in carrying out operations against gangsters and notorious criminals, was deputed to nab the Sanour MLA.

In a video message released on Wednesday from an undisclosed location, Pathanmajra denied police claims of being involved in firing at cops who came to arrest him in Haryana, and said he fled after learning that he would be killed in a "fake encounter".

Pathanmajra, a first-time MLA, escaped from custody on Tuesday with the police claiming that gunshots were fired and stones were pelted by his supporters after a police team went to arrest him in the rape case in Dabri village in Haryana's Karnal district, where he was at the residence of one of his relatives.

According to an FIR registered at the Civil Lines police station here on September 1, Pathanmajra was booked on charges of rape, cheating and criminal intimidation.

The case was registered based on a complaint by a Zirakpur-based woman, who alleged that the MLA misrepresented himself as divorced, entered into a relationship with her and later married in 2021 while already being married.

She accused him of continued sexual exploitation, threats and sending "obscene" material to her.

After the FIR was filed, Pathanmajra went live on Facebook on Tuesday, strongly criticising the Punjab government and alleging that the Delhi-based AAP leadership was "illegitimately ruling over Punjab". PTI COR SUN KSS KSS