The Assam Police visited Congress leader Pawan Khera’s residence in Delhi on Tuesday, a day after an FIR was lodged against him by state Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan, over passport fraud allegations leveled against her.
HT learned that local police were assisting the Assam policemen at their residence in Nizamuddin area.
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that Khaira “escaped to Hyderabad”.
“He escaped from Guwahati yesterday. I learned through the media that the police went to his residence in Delhi, but he fled to Hyderabad. The law will take its own course,” Sarma said in response to a question at a public gathering on Tuesday.
A major political controversy has erupted between the Congress and the BJP after the party’s surprise press conferences on Sunday, in which allegations were raised against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife.
The Congress held two press conferences in Delhi and Guwahati, where the party’s media department chief, Pawan Khera, and Assam unit chief, Gaurav Gogoi, claimed that Sarma’s wife had passports from the UAE, Egypt and Antigua and Barbuda. They claimed that she owns properties in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and has a company in Wyoming (United States).
Sarma on Monday accused the Congress of using documents from a social media group linked to Pakistan to allegedly forge passports of three countries belonging to his wife.
Sarma threatens Kunj with ‘life imprisonment’
Sarma said in a press conference on Monday that there was a Pakistani angle to the allegations leveled by Congress leaders, “as all the data that was used to fabricate the alleged passports was taken from a social media group called Pakistanis in Ajman.” [Facebook]”.
An earlier HT report quoted Sarma as saying: “In the last 10 days, news channels in Pakistan have presented several talk shows on elections in our state. This shows that there is a conspiracy hatched in the neighboring country to influence the Assam election results.”
He said that in normal circumstances, it would have simply become a defamation case. Sarma added that such allegations made just before the elections could influence the outcome and be more serious, and could even lead to “life imprisonment”.
On Sunday night, Sharma filed a case in Guwahati against Khaira and others seeking action against their “false allegations”.
In response to a list of questions asked by Gaurav Gogoi regarding the allegations, Rinike Bhuiyan denied any connection with Dubai and asked him to reveal whether his wife had a bank account in Pakistan.
“And here: Neither I nor my children nor my husband have any business interests or assets in Dubai or anywhere outside India. Now your turn. Can you disclose whether your wife has or has ever had a bank account in Pakistan? And will you make these details public?” Bhuyan said.
“It is also interesting that in the space of 24 hours you have already gone from asking for a ‘golden visa on an Egyptian passport’ to now talking about an ‘Indian passport’,” she wrote.
