Punjab: Accused of rape, AAP MLA Pathanmajra flees to Australia
Patiala (PTI): Punjab AAP MLA Harmit Singh Pathanmajra, who has been on the run since September 2 in a rape case, is learnt to have fled to Australia after his appearance in a video interview.
The development came as an embarrassment for the police, as the Sanour MLA remained elusive despite raids at his possible hideouts.
Patiala police also issued a look-out notice against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA.
Pathanmajra appeared in the video interview on Friday with an Australia-based Punjabi web channel in which he claimed that he would "return home only after securing bail".
Denying all allegations, he termed the case a "political conspiracy", aimed at silencing voices that speak for Punjab's people.
"In Punjab, ministers and MLAs are not consulted on key matters. Freedom of speech is being curtailed. After losing in Delhi, those leaders have now taken over Punjab, and they are ruining it the same way," he alleged, while expressing full faith in the judiciary.
A Patiala court has already initiated proclaimed offender proceedings against Pathanmajra after he failed to appear in connection with the rape case.
The first-time MLA escaped police custody when the Punjab Police went to Karnal in Haryana to arrest him.
Police had then claimed that gunshots were fired, and stones were pelted by the legislator's supporters after a team went to arrest him in the Dabri village of Karnal district, where he was at a relative’s residence.
However, Pathanmajra denied being involved in the firing and had said he fled after learning that he would be killed in a "fake encounter".
Police had registered a case against the AAP MLA 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 in 2021 while already being married.
She accused him of continued sexual exploitation, threats, and sending "obscene" material to her.
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'Someone must be held accountable': HC converts civil suit on Goa nightclub tragedy into PIL
Panaji (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Monday converted a civil suit against Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) saying "someone has to be held accountable" for the tragedy in which 25 people were killed.In a stern observation, Goa bench of the High Court of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Ashish Chavan said the local panchayat had "failed to take suo motu cognisance" of the club and had taken "no action despite complaints."
The division bench directed the Goa government to file a detailed reply on the permissions granted to the nightclub.
The High Court, while fixing January 8 as the next date of hearing, pointed out that commercial operations were continuing in the structure despite it having been served a demolition order.
The original petition was filed after the December 6 tragedy by Pradeep Ghadi Amonkar and Sunil Divkar, the owners of the land on which the nightclub was operating.
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Advocate Rohit Bras de Sa, the lawyer representing the petitioner, was made amicus curiae in the matter and has been asked to file a detailed affidavit in the matter.
In their petition, Amonkar and Divkar highlighted "the alarming pattern of statutory violations that have remained inadequately addressed despite multiple complaints, inspections, show-cause notices, and even a demolition order".
They contended that these violations posed "immediate threats to public safety, ecological integrity, and the rule of law in the state of Goa."
Investigations by multiple agencies into the nightclub fire have revealed various irregularities, including lack of permissions to operate the nightclub.
The Goa police arrested five managers and staff members of the club, while co-owners Gaurav Luthra and Saurabh Luthra have been detained in Thailand after they fled the country.
