New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Harmit Singh Pathanmajra has been absconding since September after being charged with a rape case in Punjab.
It has now emerged that the Punjab legislator has fled to Australia, after he appeared in a video interview with an Australia-based Punjabi web channel.
He declared in that interview that he would “return home only after securing bail.”
The development has left the Punjab Police and AAP-helmed state government red-faced. Punjab Police failed to trace the Sanour MLA after multiple raids at various locations.
A lookout notice has now been issued against Pathanmajra.
In the interview, the first-time legislator has denied all allegations against him and called the case a “political conspiracy” aimed at silencing those who speak for the people of Punjab.
“In Punjab, ministers and MLAs are not consulted on key matters. Freedom of speech is being curtailed. After losing in Delhi, those leaders have now taken over Punjab, and they are ruining it the same way,” he said, while expressing faith in the judiciary.
A Patiala court has initiated ‘proclaimed offender’ proceedings against Pathanmajra after repeated failures to appear in connection with the case.
The MLA apparently escaped from custody when a team went to arrest him from Dabri village in Haryana’s Karnal district on September 2. Police claimed that gunshots were fired and stones pelted by his supporters during the operation.
Pathanmajra claimed that he fled because he feared being “killed in a fake encounter.”
Pathanmajra got into trouble after a Zirakpur-based woman alleged that he entered into a relationship with her saying that he was divorced. She claimed the duo married in 2021, before she discovered that he was already married.
The woman accused Pathanmajra of sexual exploitation, repeated threats, and sending obscene messages and material to her.
The case was registered at Patiala’s Civil Lines police station on September 1 under charges of rape, cheating and criminal intimidation.
Punjab Police may now seek assistance from central agencies and initiate extradition proceedings against Pathanmajra.