Assam police team lands at Pawan Khera’s Delhi home but doesn’t find him; he has fled to Hyderabad, says Himanta Sarma | India News
Guwahati: A team of Assam Police on Tuesday searched Congress leader Pawan Khera’s New Delhi residence in a case filed by the chief minister. Himanta Biswa SharmaHis wife, Rinikki Bhuyan Sharma, has been raising political tensions over allegations of multiple passports and foreign assets.Khera was not found at his Nizamuddin residence during a search with the help of Delhi Police, officials said. “We will trace him wherever he is,” said DCP Devjit Nath.Police seized electronic devices in the operation. “Some incriminating material has been found, but its details cannot be disclosed at this stage,” Nath added. An FIR was lodged in Guwahati on Sunday midnight when Khera and Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi alleged that Riniky holds passports from UAE, Egypt and Antigua and Barbuda, owns property in Dubai and owns assets through US shell companies. The case contains allegations of fraud under BNS.CM Sarma rejected the allegations, terming the documents shown by the Congress as “AI-generated fakes”. “Khera dared the Assam police to arrest him, but I came to know 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. Opposition voices have sharpened their demands for scrutiny. Congress ally Raijo’s party president Akhil Gogoi has called for a CBI probe into Sarma’s family’s alleged overseas assets. Gogoi accused the Chief Minister of avoiding questions. “Khera’s questions should be answered directly. The Chief Minister has no guts and is using the police instead,” he added.Khera must suffer the consequences: BJP; Congress calls it a witch huntThe BJP and Congress clashed over the Assam Police’s action against Khera on Tuesday, with the ruling party supporting the move and the latter terming it a “witch hunt”.Anyone making false allegations and questioning the citizenship of the Chief Minister’s wife should be prepared to face the consequences, BJP said. He should face the police and not run away after making such a serious complaint, it said.Congress’ Jairam Ramesh said the deployment of “a full force of police officers” to arrest Khera for asking fundamental questions in the public interest showed that the chief minister was “irritated, desperate and distraught”. Sarma is acting like a bully who is upset by questions asked in public interest, he said.On the action, he said, “It is not due process but a witch hunt, a tyranny using the state apparatus to silence and stifle the voices of the opposition which is exposing its many black deeds.
