Punjab AAP MLA Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra. image file
AAP MLA Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra has been arrested by the Punjab Police from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh more than six months after he escaped police custody in a rape case.
Officials said on Wednesday (March 25, 2026) that Mr. Pathanmajra, the first MLA from Sanour in Patiala, was nabbed from Gwalior on Tuesday (March 24) late night.
He has been brought back to Patiala and will be produced before the court here, said Senior Superintendent of Police (Patiala) Varun Sharma.
On 1 September 2025, the police registered a case against Pathanmajra at the Civil Lines police station here on charges of rape, cheating and intimidation.
The case was registered on the complaint of a woman from Zirakpur who alleged that the MLA falsely pretended to be a divorcee, entered into a relationship with her and later married her in 2021 when he was already married.
She accused him of continued sexual exploitation, threats and sending “obscene” material.
The AAP MLA was declared a proclaimed offender after he failed to appear in the case. The Patiala police even issued a notice against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA.
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Mr. Pathanmajra was on the run since September 2 in the rape case. He escaped police custody when the Punjab police went to Haryana’s Karnal to arrest him.
The police then claimed that supporters of the lawmaker fired and pelted stones after a police team went to arrest him at Dabri village in Karnal district, where he was at the residence of one of his relatives.
Mr Pathanmajra, however, denied police claims that he was involved in the shooting at the policemen, saying he fled after learning that he would be killed in a “fake encounter”.
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After escaping police custody, Pathanmajra appeared in a video interview with an Australian web Punjabi channel last November in which he claimed he would “return home only after securing bail”.
He denied all the allegations and later termed the case as a “political conspiracy” to silence the voices that speak for the people of Punjab.
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He even targeted the AAP leadership in Delhi and alleged that ministers and MLAs were not consulted on key issues.
In another video, Mr Pathanmajra claimed he was targeted for speaking out against Delhi-based AAP leaders and holding an IAS officer responsible for last year’s floods.
The Punjab Police has formed several teams from its various wings, including the Anti-Gangster Task Force, to nab Pathanmajra. Police teams had earlier conducted raids in several places including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi to nab him.
Published – 25 March 2026 13:53 IST
