Govt will release gist of SIT’s ‘damning, damaging’ report on Gaurav Gogoi: Sarma

GUWAHATI: The authorities testament shortly give up the gist of the special investigating team (SIT) report on Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi’s alleged links with Pakistan and some documents annexed to the “damning and damaging report”, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday.“We are planning to announce the details on a large scale. Since he (Gogoi) is also the Congress’s deputy leader in Lok Sabha, people from all over the country should know the actual character,” Sarma told reporters.The SIT was constituted on February 17 this year following a state cabinet decision to investigate the activities of Pakistani national Ali Tauqeer Sheikh and his associates. The cabinet resolution ordering the SIT probe had linked Sheikh to Gaurav Gogoi’s wife, Elizabeth Colburn Gogoi, a British national.The report was handed over to Sarma on September 10. At the time, he had announced that the investigation had uncovered some “startling facts”.On Monday, Sarma told reporters that the “state cabinet had some informal discussion” on the SIT report at its cabinet meeting.“We will disclose its contents to the Press after a few days. All I can say is that it’s a very damning and damaging report,” Sarma said at a press meet in Guwahati.The chief minister said the government would release the gist of the report, but the entire report could not be shared as it contained “some secret things” and statements of many persons.Documents annexed to the SIT report would also be made available to the public, he said.The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress have clashed repeatedly over the issue, with Gogoi accusing the government of orchestrating a smear campaign.Sarma said the contents would have been made public earlier, but it got delayed due to the death of Assam’s cultural icon, Zubeen Garg, who passed away in Singapore on September 19 under suspicious circumstances while swimming in the sea during a yacht party.Gogoi, the son of former Congress chief minister Tarun Gogoi, has denied any links to Pakistan, stating that he travelled to Pakistan in 2013 when his wife was employed there as part of a climate change project.Sarma has also attacked Gogoi and his family, claiming that they were anti-nationalists since Gogoi’s two children have opted to hold British passports like their mother, instead of Indian.Gogoi has trashed the effort by the ruling party to malign him. “This subject (alleged Pakistan links) is being used to defame me by the ruling party (BJP). This is a C-grade movie and will be a big flop when the SIT submits its report,” Gogoi has said in the past.