Anticipatory bail plea by fugitive Punjab AAP MLA Pathanmajra rejected          

A local court here on Wednesday rejected an anticipatory bail plea by Punjab AAP MLA Harmeet Pathanmajra, who has been booked in a rape case.

Pathanmajra's counsel Simranjit Saggu said additional sessions judge Navdeep Gill dismissed the MLA's application.

The MLA will now approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court for relief, he added.

The court had earlier deferred the hearing on the MLA's plea to Wednesday.

Police registered a case against Pathanmajra at the Civil Lines police station here on September 1 on the 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.

She accused him of continued sexual exploitation, threats and sending "obscene" material to her.

Pathanmajra, a first-time MLA, has been on the run since September 2. He had escaped from police custody when the Punjab police went to Haryana's Karnal to arrest him in the rape case.

The police had then claimed that gunshots were fired and stones thrown by the legislator's supporters after a police team went to arrest him at Dabri village in Karnal district, where he was at the residence of one of his relatives.

However, the Sanour MLA, in a video message released from an undisclosed location, 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".

The police have intensified their hunt to nab Pathanmajra, who has been at large, said sources.

Police teams, including a team of the Anti-Gangster Task Force, have been searching for him. Raids have been conducted in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and other places, but no breakthrough has been achieved yet.