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.
Officials said on Wednesday that Pathanmajra, the first-time MLA from Sanour in Patiala, was apprehended in Gwalior late Tuesday night.
He has been brought back to Patiala and will be presented before a court here, Senior Superintendent of Police (Patiala) Varun Sharma said.
On September 1, 2025, police had registered a case against Pathanmajra at the Civil Lines police station here on charges of rape, cheating, and criminal intimidation.
The case was registered 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 later married in 2021 while already being married.
She accused him of continued sexual exploitation, threats, and sending "obscene" material to her.
The AAP MLA had been declared a proclaimed offender after he failed to appear in the case. The Patiala police had also issued a look-out notice against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA.
Pathanmajra had been on the run since September 2 in the rape case. He had escaped police custody when the Punjab police went to Karnal, Haryana, to arrest him.
Police had then claimed that gunshots were fired and stones were pelted by the MLA'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 appeared in a video interview with an Australia-based web Punjabi channel in November, in which he claimed that he would "return home only after securing bail".
Denying all allegations, he had then termed the case a "political conspiracy," aimed at silencing voices that speak for the people of Punjab.
He had also 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 the floods of the previous year.
The Punjab Police had formed several teams from its different wings, including the Anti-Gangster Task Force, to apprehend Pathanmajra. Police teams had earlier conducted raids at several places, including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi, to apprehend him.