On run, Pathanmajra releases video to decry police’s firing claim

Evading arrest for over a month and half, AAP’s Sanaur legislator Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra on Saturday released CCTV footage of his escape, challenging police claims that he had fired gunshots.

In an interview to a private channel, the MLA said he feared for his life as Punjab Police teams continued to conduct raids and pressure his supporters and family members. Pathanmajra, explaining his escape through the footage, said he had gone to Dabri village to prepare for the wedding of his brother-in-law’s son.

In the early morning, without any intimation, the Punjab Police entered the house by climbing the walls and did not even inform their Haryana counterparts, he claimed.

“A police constable was almost ready to fire at me when I escaped in an SUV,” he said. “Five false cases have been filed against me for mining, firing in Karnal and Patiala, issuing threats and sexual harassment. But I am not afraid. I will approach the court and get justice. This is no way to treat an MLA,” he said.

“If they needed to question me, they should have asked me to join the investigation,” he alleges in the fresh videos.

On September 3, a day after his daring escape from the police custody, the Punjab Government deputed the Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) to arrest the MLA.

The AGTF has conducted special operations against gangsters, eliminating or arresting them. The developments came a day after high drama prevailed in Karnal’s Dabri village, where Pathanmajra evaded arrest by the Punjab Police in a case of rape and cheating lodged against him in Patiala. While the police claimed Pathanmajra fired and escaped, the MLA claimed that he “only hoodwinked the Patiala cops” and that “no shots were fired”.

“I have ample evidence and proofs with me which I will bring in the public domain and also the court,” he said in the recent interview from an undisclosed location.

A CCTV footage released by Pathanmajra’s camp, whose authenticity The Tribune cannot verify, shows how a police team trespasses into a house from jumping above the entry gate and walls. Another footage shows that Pathanmajra escaped in a SUV while a police constable is almost ready to fire a shot at the vehicle. The Patiala Police had registered a case against Pathanmajra, a first-time MLA, at the Civil Lines police station on September 1 on charges of rape, cheating and criminal intimidation. The case was registered based on a complaint by a Zirakpur-based woman.

Later, in social media posts and video messages, Pathanmajra said he escaped from police custody fearing an encounter for “taking on the Delhi AAP lobby”. In addition to the Patiala police team, teams from the AGTF and Counter-Intelligence are trying to arrest the MLA.

A senior police official said, “We are acting as per law.”