A team of Assam Police on Tuesday morning reached Congress leader Pawan Khera’s Delhi residence for questioning him in connection with a complaint filed against him by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sharma over Khera’s claim of her having passports of three other countries and undeclared assets.
Khera was not present when the four-member Assam Police team led by a DCP-level officer, and accompanied by Delhi Police personnel, reached his Nizamuddin residence. The team conducted searches at the premises for around two and a half hours and collected some documents before leaving. The local police cordoned off the premises during the operations.
Assam Police Crime Branch DCP Debajit Nath told the media that they came in search of Khera, but could not find him. The team collected some “incriminating evidence” during the search, which could not be disclosed at the time, said the officer.
The development comes two days after Khera, at a press conference, claimed that Riniki Bhuyan Sharma holds three passports. Khera also shared images of documents that purportedly showed properties in her name in the UAE and a company registered in Wyoming, United States, which he said were not disclosed in Sarma’s poll affidavit.
Following the claims, Riniki filed a complaint against Khera with the Assam Police after which a case was registered against the Congress leader with the Crime Branch. Khera has been booked under 14 sections of the BNS, including defamation, forgery and criminal conspiracy. The Indian Express has learned that the charges in FIR, which name Khera and “unknown others” as accused, include false statements in connection with an election; cheating; various charges related to forgery; criminal intimidation; intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace; defamation; and criminal conspiracy.
The complaint also states that Khera’s conduct is not “protected political criticism”.
The controversy comes just two days before Assam votes for the Assembly elections on April 9.
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Reacting to Khera’s absence at his Delhi residence, CM Sarma said, “He ran away from Guwahati yesterday. I have come to know through the media that the police have gone to his residence in Delhi, but he has run away to Hyderabad. The law will take its own course.”
Riniki on Monday said photos of her purported passport shared by Khera were AI-generated and fabricated. “It seems that a mad dog has bitten them (Congress). From the top rung of the Congress to the lowest rung, I believe they don’t have anything else to do except defaming people, that too with AI and photoshop… It is an example set to the entire Assamese society by a very veteran party, which is very shameful. I think they have gone berserk… For the last two years, they have been doing every little thing to defame me, my daughter, my son; we are nowhere related to politics,” she told mediapersons.
A Congress leader considered close to Khera told The Indian Express: “What Khera ji has said should be investigated. Instead, they’ve sent police to conduct raids. He is not in Delhi currently.”
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh posted on X: “The deployment of a full army of police officials to arrest my colleague Pawan Khera for asking basic questions in the public interest proves that the Assam CM is disturbed, desperate, and rattled. This is not due process but instead a witch hunt, a bully using state machinery to muzzle and silence the voice of the Opposition that is exposing his many black deeds. Those who intimidate are the ones who are afraid and have much to hide. It also proves that the CM is facing imminent defeat.”
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Union MoS for External Affairs and Assam BJP leader Pabitra Margherita addressed a press conference in Jorhat where he said the purported documents in the name of Riniki Bhuyan Sharma are “false and fabricated”.
“…I’d like to categorically clarify and assure everyone that after thorough verification through our official and diplomatic channels, it has been established that those documents (passports) are fake, fabricated and morphed. I would like to request everyone to deny any claims that these documents are correct. These documents have been fabricated by the Congress party.”
Passport controversy
The Assam CM has declared that he will pursue legal action against Khera. He claimed that his team, while conducting their research, performed a reverse Google search on the ID number of the alleged UAE document and found that the original belonged to an Egyptian national whose image had been shared on a “Pakistani” Facebook group as a lost document.
He further claimed that a similar reverse search on the MRZ code on the purported Egyptian document showed that the original document belongs to another woman. He also claimed that the documents contain discrepancies, such as a mismatch in the birth year, and that one of the alleged passports lists the place of birth as “Indian”. The photos, he alleged, were doctored.
Later on Monday he said the Union government has sought a clarification from the governments of the three countries, and that all three have indicated that the documents are not genuine.