Guwahati: For the second day running, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera appeared before the crime branch of Assam Police here on Thursday in connection with legal actions initiated by Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, wife of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, PTI reported.
The complaints arose after Khera claimed Riniki held several passports and unreported overseas assets. On Wednesday, officers subjected him to over ten hours of questioning and subsequently summoned him to appear again today.
Before entering the Crime Branch on Thursday, he told reporters, “I am cooperating with the investigations and will do so again today.”
Khera was tight-lipped on probe details, insisting he will talk after it is completed.
Earlier on Wednesday, while emerging from the Crime Branch office, the Congress leader said he was “a law-abiding citizen, it is my duty to cooperate as there is a constitution and I will abide by it”.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said the law will take its own course, but “we have already received in writing from the Union government that the documents Khera displayed were fake.”
The chief minister said the probe will not take long and police will be able to submit the chargesheet within the stipulated timeframe.
Riniki Bhuyan Sharma lodged FIRs against Khera and associates at Guwahati Crime Branch under varous sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) covering false election-related claims, fraud, document forgery, passing fakes as real, provocative insults risking unrest, and libel.
Earlier, Assam Police visited Khera’s Delhi residence but found that he was not present.
Khera initially approached the Telangana High Court, which granted him seven days’ transit anticipatory bail.
Assam Police, subsequently, challenged that order in the Supreme Court.
The apex court stayed the transit bail and directed him to seek relief before the Gauhati High Court.
After the Gauhati High Court refused his anticipatory bail application, Khera returned to the Supreme Court, which ultimately granted him anticipatory bail, observing that the dispute appeared to have arisen from political rivalry.
