Khera ‘missing’ after Assam Police raid
A team of Assam Police personnel on Tuesday searched the residence of Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera in Delhi, two days after he publicly claimed that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife holds three passports.
“The whereabouts of the Congress leader are currently unknown, but he will be traced,” said DCP Crime of Assam, Debajit Nath. The team formally informed Delhi Police upon arrival, following which a local police team joined in assisting in the proceedings. Nath confirmed that the Congress leader has been booked under charges related to forgery and other offences.
The case is based on a complaint filed by the CM’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma. The case has been registered at the Crime Branch Police Station in Guwahati, the DCP said.
He added that electronic devices were seized during the search, stating that some “incriminating material” was found at Khera’s residence, without providing further details. Khera had alleged the CM’s wife held three foreign passports from the UAE, Egypt, and Antigua and Barbuda, and also questioned property links in Dubai and assets connected to companies in the US.
Riniki Bhuyan Sarma has categorically denied the claims, calling the documents fake. “It seems that a mad dog has bitten them. From the top rung of the Congress to the lowest rung, I believe that they don’t have anything else to do except defaming people, that too with AI-generated and total photoshop,” she told mediapersons on Monday.
Himanta Biswa Sarma backed up her denial with a technical counter-argument. He said his team conducted 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.
Sarma further said that a separate verification of the machine-readable zone code on another document indicated that it belonged to a different individual altogether. He also pointed out discrepancies such as mismatched birth years and incorrect listing of place of birth in the purported passport documents.
The Assam CM added that the Union Government sought clarification from the three countries in relation to the documents, and all of them indicated that the documents were not genuine.
After reports of the police search surfaced, Sarma claimed that Khera had left Guwahati and was not in Delhi. He said he had learned through media reports that Khera was currently in Hyderabad. “The law will take its own course,” Sarma said.
The Congress party strongly criticised the police action. Leaders termed the search politically motivated and accused the Assam Government of misusing state machinery. A Congress leader close to Khera said that the allegations raised by him should be investigated instead of initiating police action. The leader also confirmed that Khera was not in Delhi at the time of the search.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh also reacted sharply, alleging that the move was an attempt to silence the Opposition. He said the deployment of police against Khera for raising questions in the public interest showed desperation on the part of the Assam Chief Minister.
Ramesh described the action as a “witch hunt” and accused the Government of using intimidation tactics. He further alleged that such steps reflected fear and an attempt to suppress dissent. Police officials said the investigation is ongoing and further steps will be taken based on evidence collected during the probe. Efforts are expected to be made to question Khera as part of the investigation. The case has triggered a political confrontation between the ruling side in Assam and the Congress, with both sides standing firm on their positions as the probe continues.
