E-Paper
Sanaur MLA Pathanmajra’s anticipatory bail plea junked once again
A Patiala court denied AAP MLA Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra's bail plea again; he has been on the run since September 2 over a rape case.
A Patiala court on Thursday dismissed an anticipatory bail plea of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, who has been untraceable for over a month. This is the second time in a month that the court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea.
The Sanaur legislator had escaped police custody on September 2 when Punjab Police went to Dabri village of Karnal in Haryana to arrest him in connection with a rape case. On September 10, the MLA’s bail application, which was filed in the same court of the additional sessions judge, Patiala, was rejected over lack of maintainability because the affidavit was filed by his wife. This time, the affidavit was filed by the MLA.
Pathanmajra has now decided to move the Punjab and Haryana high court, said his counsel Simarjit Singh Saggu. “We argued that the complainant has (in the past) filed a similar case against someone else and the accused was acquitted then because she (complainant) in that case had changed her statement in the court. Therefore, we argued that the complainant had a history of filing such complaints.” He said they would approach the high court.
The FIR was registered on September 1 at Civil Lines police station in Patiala for “rape, cheating and criminal intimidation” on the complaint of a Zirakpur-based woman. She had alleged that the MLA misrepresented himself as divorced, entered into a relationship with her and later tied the knot with her in 2021 despite being already married.
The 50-year-old MLA had fled from the house of his relative Gurnam Singh Laddi, a member of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC), in Dabri village of Karnal minutes after a Punjab Police team arrived there to arrest him. He has been on the run since then. The Haryana Police have also registered a case against him and his relative for obstruction in discharging the duty, escape from custody, etc. Police claimed that gunshots were fired and stones were pelted by the legislator’s supporters after a team went to arrest him. However, Pathanmajra denied the claims of firing and said he fled after learning that he would be killed in a “fake encounter”.
On September 17, the AAP appointed Ranjodh Singh Hadana as in-charge of the Sanaur assembly constituency.
On September 27, Pathanmajra released a video from an undisclosed location, blaming AAP MLAs and farmer unions for not standing by him.
