CHANDIGARH: Two FIRs under non-bailable sections have been registered by the Punjab Police against Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak, who recently left the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Sources said the FIRs were filed in different districts of Punjab over allegations of harassment of women and corruption, and that he could be arrested soon.
A Punjab Police team reached Pathak’s residence in Delhi, but he had already left his Pandara Park home before their arrival. Delhi Police personnel were later deployed outside his residence, with the SHO of Tilak Marg Police Station and several officers present, tightening security in the area.
The timing of the FIRs has triggered a political row, with the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal alleging “political vendetta”.
Pathak, along with six other Rajya Sabha MPs, including Raghav Chadha, recently defected and merged their group with the BJP. Following this, the AAP government tabled and won a confidence motion in the Punjab Assembly.
Reacting to the development, Punjab BJP working president Ashwani Sharma alleged political vendetta. He said the move reflected “fear and panic” within the AAP leadership. “As soon as Sandeep Pathak left the AAP and joined the BJP, a non-bailable FIR was registered against him. This shows that Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann are using the police as a political weapon,” he said.
Sharma added that invoking non-bailable sections and threatening immediate action was an attempt to impose a political agenda. He alleged that the Mann government was turning Punjab into a “police state” where dissent invites cases. “BJP Punjab will not tolerate this high-handedness. We will challenge it both legally and democratically,” he said.
Echoing similar concerns, senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia accused the AAP of selectively targeting former allies. In a post on X, he said: “Selective targeting of those who fall out with the AAP. Sandeep Pathak was once a trusted aide of Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal. If he was wrong, who else was involved? After shifting loyalties, FIRs under non-bailable sections raise serious questions.”
The development comes close on the heels of a Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) raid on April 30 at a unit of the Trident Group in Dhaula, whose chairman emeritus Rajinder Gupta, also a Rajya Sabha MP, recently joined the BJP. The Trident Group has since moved the High Court against the raid.
Since 2022, Pathak, a Rajya Sabha member from Punjab, has been considered one of the key strategists behind the AAP’s victory in the state Assembly elections.