Pathanmajra Arrested, Panjab Refuses CBI Probe in Bhullar Case

March

2026

Panjab police arrested fugitive Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra on charges of rape from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh on 25 Mar. Pathanmajra, an MLA from Sanaur, Patiala district, had been absconding for the past eight months. On 31 Aug 2025, while floods raged in Panjab, Pathanmajra had spoken against Panjab Principal Secretary for Water Resources Krishan Kumar over getting the Tangri rivulet desilted and cleaned, and said the Delhi-based AAP leadership was 'illegitimately ruling over Panjab. On 1 Sep 2025, a First Information report was filed against Pathanmajra over rape, cheating, and criminal intimidation on a complaint by a Zirakpur-based woman who alleged that the MLA misrepresented himself as a divorcee, entered into a relationship with her, and later married someone else in 2021. The police had initially arrested Pathanmajra from Karnal, Haryana but he escaped custody. While on the run, Pathanmajra claimed he feared he would be killed in a fake encounter and was rumored to have fled to Australia. Pathanmajra is the sixth AAP MLA to be arrested, the others MLAs are: Vigilance Bureau (VB) arrested former Health Minister and Mansa representative Vijay Singla in May 2022; VB arrested Bathinda Rural representative Amit Rattan Kotfatta in February 2023; VB arrested Jalandhar Central representative Raman Arora in May 2025; police arrested Khadoor Sahib representative Manjinder Singh Lalpura in September 2025; and police arrested then Transport Minister and Patti representative Laljit Singh Bhullar from Mandi Gobindgarh, Fatehgarh Sahib district in March over abetment of a government official's suicide. In the Bhullar case, five Panjab opposition Members of Parliament have asked for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the suicide of a Punjab Warehousing Corporation manager Gagandeep Singh Randhawa. However, Panjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has refused the CBI probe saying, ‘Panjab police are capable of carrying out the investigation. The probe will be conducted in a proper manner.’ The demand for a CBI probe by the opposition is ironic because in November 2020, the Indian National Congress state government had withdrawn its general consent to the CBI after a prolonged legal and political battle over the probe into the 2015 sacrilege cases (earlier coverage).