New Delhi: AAP MLA Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, facing rape and cheating charges in Punjab, was arrested from Madhya Pradesh late Tuesday night, after being on the run for the last seven months, police said.
A rape and cheating case was registered against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA in Punjab’s Patiala. He had been absconding for nearly seven months. He was taken into custody from the outskirts of Gwalior last night and will be produced before the court today.
A joint team of police from Punjab Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) and Counter-Intelligence nabbed the accused after a series of search operations across seven states. Pathanmajra, who represents the Sanaur Assembly constituency in Patiala district, was booked after a complaint was filed against him on September 1 last year by a Zirakpur-based woman.
In her complaint, the woman alleged that the MLA claimed he was a divorced man and got into a relationship with her and later married her at a Gurdwara in 2021. The complainant also alleged that she later learnt that he never divorced his first wife. She also accused Pathanmajra of sexually exploiting her and threatening her.
Based on her complaint, a case was registered against the AAP MLA under sections related to rape, cheating and criminal intimidation.
According to police, when they went to arrest him at his relative’s residence in Karnal in September last year, he allegedly opened fire at them and managed to flee the scene. He, however, denied the allegations against him.
Days later, a massive manhunt was launched to nab him and multiple raids were conducted in Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.