With just 48 hours remaining before Assam heads to the polls for its April 9 assembly elections, an explosive political confrontation has triggered inter-state police action. A team of Assam Police, accompanied by Delhi Police personnel, arrived at the New Delhi residence of Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera on Tuesday.
The deployment stems from a criminal FIR filed by Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, the wife of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. She accused Khera of forgery and defamation under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.
Khera publicly accused Sharma of holding valid passports from three foreign nations: the UAE, Egypt, and Antigua & Barbuda. The Congress spokesperson further alleged she possessed undisclosed properties in Dubai and operated a Wyoming-based company in the United States purportedly valued at $34.67 billion. He claimed Rs 52,000 crore was meant to be distributed among the Chief Minister’s family.
Sharma forcefully rejected the claims. She described the passport documents circulated by the opposition as “AI-generated” and “poorly photoshopped.”
Lashing out at the opposition during a press briefing, she remarked that it seemed a “mad dog has bitten them.” She accused the party of pursuing a desperate, two-year-long smear campaign against her family, according to a detailed report released on Tuesday.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma immediately highlighted multiple glaring anomalies in the documents presented by Khera. He pointed out severe spelling errors, including the word “Egyptiann.” He noted mismatched expiry dates, invalid QR codes, and incorrect Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) country codes.
Sarma claimed a reverse image search showed the UAE document’s original photograph belonged to an Egyptian national and was lifted directly from a Pakistani social media group. Both the Chief Minister and his wife have pledged to file separate civil and criminal defamation suits.
Khera was reportedly not at his residence when the police arrived.
How the “St. Kitts” Parallel Shifts the Election Narrative
This intense political warfare introduces extreme volatility into the region just days before the vote counting scheduled for May 4. The legal fallout reflects the brutal reality of the political world right now.
Assam Congress President Gaurav Gogoi immediately escalated the confrontation. He demanded a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe and explicitly challenged Chief Minister Sarma to swear under oath on the Bhagavad Gita that his family does not possess the alleged foreign assets.
Dismissing the opposition’s tactics, Chief Minister Sarma explicitly drew a historical parallel to the infamous “St. Kitts forgery case” from Indian political history. He stated that Congress was attempting to reuse an outdated playbook of political fabrication. By framing the allegations as a repeat of a known historical hoax, the ruling party is actively attempting to neutralize the $34.67 billion wealth accusation before voters reach the ballot boxes on Thursday.