Sarma, wife to sue Khera over ‘foreign passports’ claim

Guwahati: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said he and his wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, will initiate legal proceedings against Congress leader Pawan Khera for alleging that she holds multiple foreign passports and undisclosed properties in Dubai.Khera, speaking at a press conference in New Delhi just days before Assam votes on April 9, claimed that Bhuyan Sharma possesses three passports — of the UAE, Antigua-Barbuda and Egypt — that are supposed to lapse in 2027, 2031 and 2029, respectively. He further alleged that she owns two properties in Dubai which had not been mentioned in Sarma’s election affidavit.Dismissing the allegations as fabricated, Sarma said, “Busting Congress’ propaganda — serious discrepancies exposed.

The documents being circulated show multiple glaring inconsistencies, suggesting a crude and poorly executed attempt at digital manipulation.”The CM went on to add, “Assam Police using the diplomatic channel has verified that the UAE passport is fake. Even a common person can verify in an official website of UAE. The verification of the other foreign countries will come in a day or two.” He said that Khera is destined to go to jail for fraud.

Sarma pointed out errors such as mismatched expiry dates, invalid QR codes, spelling mistakes like “Egyptiann,” and inconsistencies in the country code shown in the Machine Readable Zone on the alleged passports.The CM added, “These inconsistencies strongly indicate possible fabrication or digital manipulation. Truth will prevail. Those spreading misinformation will be held accountable. Eventually Mr Khera will go to jail.”Responding to Khera’s allegations, Bhuyan Sharma said, “Today’s press conference by Congress and Pawan Khera was laughable. It was filled with false information, weak use of AI-generated content, and poor photo editing that only created a mockery. I had not expected that a national party and its spokesperson would resort to such low-quality editing and fabricated, imaginary passports.”Bhuyan Sharma said she is planning legal action in this case.

“Work has already begun to file a criminal case. I will speak about this in court,” she said.Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi countered, saying the allegations were grave. “Holding multiple passports and failure to disclose properties is a criminal offence. Shocking allegations have come out related to Himanta Biswa Sarma. How much money have they sent from Assam to their bank accounts abroad? More investigation is required.”Claiming that defamation cases are means to silence voices, Gaurav said, “We are moving EC to disqualify Himanta Biswa Sarma’s candidature as he has not informed about the assets owned by his wife in Dubai and in the US,” adding that they will also appeal to PM Narendra Modi “for an ED probe against Sarma.”Later in the evening, Khera flew down to Guwahati and in a joint press conference with Gaurav and former Chattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, reiterated his claim, before adding, “Sarma should declare in affidavit that he and his family members do not own any property outside the country and his wife does not have passports of other countries.”