Patiala, March 25 AAP MLA Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra was arrested by the Punjab Police from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, more than six months after he escaped police custody in a rape case.
He is the sixth ruling AAP legislator from Punjab to be arrested in various cases since the Bhagwant Mann government was formed in 2022.
Officials said on Wednesday that Pathanmajra, a first-time MLA from Sanour in Patiala, was apprehended along with his three associates from the outskirts of the Gwalior area late Tuesday night.
Amid tight security, Pathanmajra was produced before a court in Patiala, which sent him to a four-day police remand, according to Senior Superintendent of Police (Patiala) Varun Sharma.
On September 1, 2025, the police registered a case against Pathanmajra at the Civil Lines police station here on charges of rape, cheating, and criminal intimidation, based on a complaint by a woman from Zirakpur, who alleged that the MLA misrepresented himself as a divorced man, entered into a relationship with her, and married her in 2021 while already being married. She accused him of continued sexual exploitation and threats.
Speaking to reporters in Patiala, the SSP shared that Pathanmajra was apprehended by police teams comprising Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Chaudhary, SP Gurbans Bains, and other police officials.
Police sources said the breakthrough came from a hotel Wi-Fi connection in Gwalior, where an active UK-based mobile number was traced.
Investigations revealed that the number was allegedly being used by Pathanmajra himself, ultimately leading police to his location.
A joint operation involving 5-6 police teams resulted in his arrest after a two-day search in Shivpuri in Gwalior.
He was apprehended along with his three associates, the police said.
Pathanmajra's arrest came two days after former transport minister Laljit Singh Bhullar was held from Mandi Gobindgarh on charges of abetting the suicide of an official of the warehousing corporation in Amritsar.
Pathanmajra is the sixth AAP MLA to be arrested during the AAP regime. In May 2022, then health minister Vijay Singla was held on corruption charges. Bathinda Rural MLA Amit Rattan Kotfatta was held in a bribery case in February 2023.
Jalandhar Central MLA Raman Arora was arrested in a corruption case involving an official of the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation in May 2025, while Khadoor Sahib MLA Manjinder Singh Lalpura was held after he was convicted in a 2013 molestation and assault case last September.
Pathanmajra was declared a proclaimed offender after he failed to appear in this case. Patiala police had even issued a look-out notice against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA.
He had been on the run since September 2 in the rape case after escaping from police custody when the Punjab police went to Haryana's Karnal to arrest him.
The police had then claimed that gunshots were fired and stones were hurled by the legislator's supporters after a police team went to arrest him in Dabri village in Karnal district, where he was at the residence of one of his relatives.
However, Pathanmajra had denied police claims of being involved in firing at cops and said he fled after learning that he would be killed in a "fake encounter".
After he escaped police custody, Pathanmajra, in late November, appeared in a video interview with an Australia-based web Punjabi channel in which he claimed that he would "return home only after securing bail".
Denying all allegations against him, he had then termed the case a "political conspiracy" to silence voices that speak for Punjab's people.
He had even targeted the AAP's Delhi leadership, alleging that ministers and MLAs were not consulted over key matters.
In another video, Pathanmajra had alleged that he was being targeted for speaking out against Delhi-based AAP leaders and for holding an IAS officer responsible for last year's floods.
The Punjab Police had formed several teams from its different wings, including the Anti-Gangster Task Force, to nab Pathanmajra. Police teams had earlier conducted raids at several places, including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, to apprehend him.