Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Pijush Hazarika on Tuesday filed a police complaint against former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for allegedly accusing state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of being involved in a number of corruption cases when he was a minister in the Congress government, PTI reported.

“Gogoi said there were irregularities committed by Sarma, who was in the Congress government for 15 years,” Hazarika told reporters after filing the complaint. “Now if that has happened, it means Gogoi is also a culprit and did not fulfil his constitutional obligation. It is an abetment of the crime then.”

Advertisement

Meanwhile, Gogoi claimed that by filing the complaint against him, Hazarika had admitted that Sarma had committed the crimes, Time8 reported. “If he has not done any crime, then there is no question of me safeguarding him. If Pijush Hazarika is filing a case, it means Himanta had committed those crimes,” Gogoi told reporters in New Delhi.

The police said they were looking into the complaint and had not yet registered a First Information Report. “It is difficult to register a case at a police station in Dispur because the original cases mentioned in the complaint were all registered in other places,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (Dispur) Sujit Saikia said. “The investigation into those is on.”

The former chief minister has alleged that Sarma had joined the Congress from the All Assam Students’ Union to save himself from a case registered under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act and left for the BJP when the Saradha ponzi scheme and Louis Berger bribery cases came to the fore. Gogoi has also claimed that he overlooked Sarma’s involvement in the Rs 1,000-crore North Cachar Hills scam.

Sarma, in a speech in the Assam Assembly on March 15, accused Gogoi of practicing “hit-and-run” politics, The Times of India reported. “He criticised me with personal attacks during the debate on the Budget,” Sarma said. “When my turn came today, he is not present here.”