Congress leader Pawan Khera appears for questioning in case filed by Assam CM’s wife

SEnior us congress leader Pawan Khera on midweek appeared before the Guwahati law-breaking ramify for inquiring in connection with a forgery and defamation case filed by Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, wife of Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, over allegations regarding foreign assets and passports.Riniki filed the case in Guwahati on April 5 after Khera alleged that she possessed multiple passports and had undisclosed foreign assets. He also shared some foreign-linked documents, which Sharma later claimed were forged.Both Riniki and CM Sarma rejected the allegations as baseless and politically motivated, and Riniki subsequently lodged a formal complaint with Assam Police in Guwahati.Also Read: SC grants Pawan Khera bail, warns liberty can’t yield to political rivalryBased on the complaint, the Guwahati Crime Branch registered a case under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Sections 175 (false statement in connection with an election), 318 (cheating), 338 (forgery of valuable security or will), 337 (forgery of public record), 340 (using forged documents as genuine), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 356 (defamation), among others.Khera reached Guwahati on Wednesday and headed to the Crime Branch office with a team of lawyers, where his lawyers submitted documents linked to the allegations he had made earlier.Advocate Ritam Singh, who accompanied Khera, said the top court, while granting anticipatory bail, had imposed a condition requiring him to appear before Assam Police and cooperate with the investigation.“Assam Police had asked him to appear before the investigating officers on May 13 and he complied with the direction,” Singh said.He added that the police questioned Khera about the basis of his allegations against the complainant and the documents he had relied upon. Khera presented those documents to the officials.Before entering the Crime Branch office, Khera said he came because the investigators had asked him to appear.“I am a law-abiding citizen and I have followed the procedure from the beginning. I have come here because I respect the justice system and the law,” he said.Senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora, who was also present outside the Crime Branch office, said Khera appeared before the investigating officers in compliance with the Supreme Court’s direction.Reacting to this, the CM said Assam Police would submit the charge sheet as soon as possible, provided Khera cooperates properly with the probe.“Pawan Khera appeared before the Crime Branch as per the Supreme Court’s order. We will file the charge sheet within the stipulated time. We want to conclude the case as soon as possible,” Sarma said.During its probe, Assam Police also visited Khera’s residence in New Delhi on April 7, though he was not present there at the time.Khera initially secured a seven-day transit anticipatory bail from the Telangana High Court on April 10. However, Assam Police challenged that relief before the Supreme Court, which stayed the HC order on April 15.The apex court observed that if Khera approached a competent court in Assam, its earlier interim protection would not prejudice consideration of his plea.Khera later moved the Gauhati High Court seeking anticipatory bail. On April 24, Justice Parthiv Jyoti Saikia rejected the plea after reserving the order following a detailed hearing on April 21.Later, Khera approached the Supreme Court and, on May 1, a bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and AS Chandurkar granted him anticipatory bail while observing that the allegations and counter-allegations in the case appeared, prima facie, to be politically motivated and influenced by political rivalry.The apex court, however, clarified that its observations were limited to deciding the bail plea and should not affect the merits of the investigation or trial.