The Assam government has approached the Supreme Court challenging a Telangana High Court order that granted transit anticipatory bail for one week to Congress leader Pawan Khera in a case registered by the Assam Police, Bar and Bench reported on Monday.
Transit anticipatory bail is a temporary protection from arrest granted in one state to enable persons to approach the courts where the case has been filed.
The High Court had granted relief to Khera on Friday after the Congress leader approached it seeking protection following a first information report filed by Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, wife of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
The FIR was filed after the Congress leader claimed on April 5 that he had documentary evidence that showed that Riniki Bhuyan Sarma holds passports of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Antigua and Barbuda. Himanta Biswa Sarma and his wife refuted the allegations.
The case was registered at the Crime Branch Police Station in Guwahati on charges of defamation, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
During the hearing on Thursday, Assam Advocate General Devajit Saikia had asked why the Congress leader had moved the Telangana High Court, though he lives in Delhi and the case has been registered in Assam.
“There is no indication that he cannot come to Assam,” Saikia had said. “Assam is not a banana republic. There is no threat to his life.”
Khera’s counsel, advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, had told the High Court that the case “reeks of political vendetta” and that the FIR invokes “every possible offence one can dream of”.
“You are not fighting your political opponents politically, but through vicious unjustified misuse of law,” Singhvi had told the court. “Because you want to silence me...It is disproportionate.”
On April 7, the Assam Police went to Khera’s home in Delhi to question him in connection with his claims about the Assam chief minister and his wife.
Khera was not at home when the police arrived, and the authorities searched the house, said Assam Police Assistant Commissioner Debojit Nath.
Nath added that electronic devices and “incriminating material” were seized from Khera’s home. However, he did not disclose what the material was.
On April 6, Himanta Biswa Sarma alleged that the documents cited by the Congress had been supplied by a Pakistani social media group.
The chief minister had also claimed that the Congress had used details from a passport that had been allegedly lost. This document, he claimed, had been uploaded to the Pakistani social media group. “They photoshopped it,” he said at a press conference.
On Monday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the party stands with Khera and will not be intimidated.
“The present CM of Assam is the most corrupt in the country,” Gandhi alleged on social media. “He will not escape the law. His abuse of state power to harass his political opponents and critics is against the Constitution.”
Gandhi added: “The questions that are being raised have to be probed. Transparency, accountability of power and rule of law are the basis of our constitutional values.”
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