The hunt for Punjab AAP MLA and rape accused Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra intensified on Thursday, two days after he escaped police custody amid high drama, officials said.
A team of the Punjab Police's Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF), specially trained in carrying out operations against gangsters and notorious criminals, has been deputed to nab the Sanour MLA, whose comments against his party put him bang in the centre of controversy, they said. The first-time MLA escaped from custody on Tuesday with police claiming that gunshots were fired and stones hurled by his supporters when a team went to arrest him in Dabri village in Haryana's Karnal district. He was at a relative's home at the time.
He released a video message from an undisclosed destination on Wednesday, denying police claims of being involved in the firing and declaring that he fled after learning he would be killed in a "fake encounter".
According to an FIR registered at the Civil Lines police station here on September 1, Pathanmajra has been booked on charges of rape, cheating and criminal intimidation. The case was registered based on a complaint by a Zirakpur-based woman, who alleged that the MLA misrepresented himself as divorced, entered into a relationship with her and later married her in 2021 while already being married.