New Delhi, Apr 17: The BJP sharpened its attack on Congress leader Pawan Khera on Friday after the Supreme Court refused to extend protection to him from possible coercive action in a case linked to his allegations against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife and asked him to seek relief from a competent court in the state.
The ruling party asserted that the Supreme Court’s order has exposed a “baseless and politically-motivated” campaign run by Khera.
In a video posted on X, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla accused him of relying on fabricated material.
“Pawan Khera has got a second jolt from the Supreme Court in the last few days…. Those documents (used by Khera) turned out to be forged, fake, photoshopped, AI-generated and in half an hour, the entire truth came out. Yet he continued with fake documents. In fact, he even presented forged documents in court,” Poonawalla alleged in the video.
He further accused the Congress leader of relying on fabricated material aimed at the “political assassination” of Sarma and his family “at the instance of Pakistan”.
“Khera used forged documents given at the instance of Pakistan in Islamabad in order to conduct a political hit job — a political assassination — of Himanta Biswa Sarma and his wife, the daughter of Assam,” Poonawalla said.
He alleged that the campaign was backed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and accused the opposition party’s leadership of harbouring hatred towards Assam and its people.
“Now, it is clear as daylight that this was all done at the instance of certain forces inimical to Assam in order to remove the chief minister by running a hit-and-run campaign against him. And Rahul Gandhi came out in endorsement of this campaign. So the documents which were forged came from Islamabad and were supported and patronised by Rahul Gandhi,” the BJP leader alleged.
“They (Congress) wanted to give up Assam in the 1960s. They have targeted the Assam gamosa. Rahul Gandhi has hatred for Assamese people and now, they have shown this hatred even by targeting the daughter and the son of Assam using fake, forged documents,” he added.
Taking a swipe at Khera, Poonawalla questioned the Congress leader’s conduct.
“He created a web of lies and is now hiding like an absconding person…. Khera is not a babbar sher (lion) but a bheegi billi (scaredy cat),” he said, in an apparent reference to Gandhi’s description of his party leaders and workers.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain Khera’s plea and asked him to move a court of competent jurisdiction in Assam for anticipatory bail in the case.
At a press conference on April 5, Khera alleged that the Assam chief minister’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, had multiple passports and foreign property, which were not declared in Sarma’s affidavit for the April 9 Assembly polls in the northeastern state. Sarma and his wife have rejected the allegations as false and fabricated.
On April 15, the top court stayed a Telangana High Court order granting Khera one-week transit anticipatory bail in the case.
The case against Khera was registered at the Guwahati Crime Branch police station under sections 175 (false statement in connection with an election), 35 (right of private defence of the body and of property) and 318 (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. (PTI)
