Punjab AAP MLA Harmit Singh Pathanmajra, wanted in a rape case and missing since September 2, has surfaced in Australia, leaving the Punjab police red-faced and the state government scrambling for answers.
Despite a lookout notice and multiple raids, the Sanour MLA managed to flee India. His appearance in a video interview with an Australia-based Punjabi web channel has exposed glaring lapses in enforcement.
“I will return home only after securing bail,” Pathanmajra declared in the video, denying all allegations and calling the case a “political conspiracy.” The legislator accused his own party leadership of silencing dissent.
“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, expressing “full faith in the judiciary.”
A Patiala court has already begun proclaimed offender proceedings after Pathanmajra ignored multiple summons.
In September, he escaped from police custody in Haryana’s Karnal during an attempted arrest. Police claimed gunshots were fired and stones were pelted by his supporters in Dabri village, allowing the MLA to flee.
Pathanmajra, however, countered that he had no role in the firing. “I fled after learning that I would be killed in a fake encounter,” he said.
The FIR against Pathanmajra, filed on September 1 at Patiala’s Civil Lines police station, includes charges of rape, cheating, and criminal intimidation.
The complainant, a woman from Zirakpur, alleged that the MLA falsely claimed to be divorced, entered a relationship with her, and married in 2021 while already married. She accused him of sexual exploitation, intimidation, and sending “obscene” material.
