Telangana HC reserves order on Pawan Khera’s plea against Assam Police FIR

THe Telangana heights margaret court on th reserved orders on a plea by senior us congress leader Pawan Khera seeking shelter from arrest in connection with an FIR registered by the Assam Police on a complaint by Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, wife of Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.Khera approached the high court seeking anticipatory bail before single judge justice K Sujana, arguing that no arrest was warranted in what was, “at the highest”, a case of alleged defamation, and accusing Sarma of using the state police to harass and intimidate him.Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Khera, told the court that the Assam CM was acting with political vendetta and, in sending his state police after Khera, was behaving like a “constitutional cowboy” who could “put Rambo to shame”.Singhvi argued that the FIR itself framed the allegations against Khera as “defamatory imputations”, raising questions about the necessity of custodial interrogation.“Are we living in the wild west that for this we have to arrest someone in a case of alleged defamation?” Singhvi asked, adding that the invocation of multiple offences in the FIR, including cheating, forgery, and criminal intimidation, was a “vicious, unjustified misuse of the law” aimed at harassment and silencing a political opponent.He told the court that Khera, a prominent political figure, was neither a flight risk nor a habitual offender and therefore did not require arrest at this stage.Singhvi further submitted that Khera frequently resides in Hyderabad with his wife, who has also contested elections there, and was present in the city when the Assam Police reached his Delhi residence. “Why can the police not proceed without arrest?” he asked, alleging that the deployment of a large police team from Assam to Delhi within hours of the FIR being registered indicated “mala fide intent.”“I am a political opponent. If you start arresting people like this, this becomes nothing but jungle raj,” Singhvi said. “We are not living in an age of constitutional cowboys whipping out things from the holster and sending 100 people from Assam to Nizamuddin for what the complaint says is a defamation case… It is not for nothing that I use the term Constitutional cowboy. He (Sarma) can put Rambo to shame,” he added.Opposing the plea, the Assam Police argued that the case went beyond simple defamation and involved serious allegations of forgery and fabrication of documents.Assam advocate general Devajit Saikia told the court that Riniki Sharma had denied the authenticity of the documents cited by Khera, terming them “fake and forged”.Saikia further said that Khera had “run to Hyderabad” after learning that the Assam Police was set to visit his residence in Delhi, arguing that his conduct demonstrated he was an “established flight risk”.He also contended that Khera should have approached the Gauhati high court or a Delhi court instead of moving the Telangana HC for relief.“There is not a single whisper here about why he cannot come to Assam and file for anticipatory bail. He could have even moved a court in Delhi since he resides there. Instead, he is in Hyderabad. Although he is saying he is not a flight risk, he is an established flight risk at this stage, when police went to him, he fled,” Saikia said.The FIR was registered on April 6 following a complaint by Riniki Sharma after Khera alleged in a press conference that she held multiple foreign passports and undisclosed overseas assets.After hearing both sides, justice K Sujana reserved orders on Khera’s plea.