New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday, April 13, said his party stands with Pawan Khera and “will not be intimidated”, after the Assam government moved the Supreme Court challenging the transit anticipatory bail to him in a case related to his allegations against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his wife.
On April 10, the Telangana High Court granted one-week transit anticipatory bail to the AICC media and publicity department chairperson, who had filed a plea for relief after the Assam police visited his Delhi residence for questioning but did not find him there.
Khera had, at a press conference on April 5, alleged that the Assam CM’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, has multiple passports and foreign property, which were not declared in the chief minister’s election affidavit for the April 9 Assembly polls in that state. The Sarmas have rejected the allegations as false and fabricated.
In a post on X, Gandhi alleged, “The present CM of Assam is the most corrupt in the country. He will not escape the law. His abuse of state power to harass his political opponents and critics is against the Constitution.”
“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. The Congress Party stands with Pawan Khera. We will not be intimidated,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
The case against Khera was registered on Riniki Bhuyan Sarma’s complaint at the Guwahati Crime Branch Police Station under several sections of the BNS, including 175 (false statement in connection with an election), 35 (Right of private defence of the body and of property) and 318 (cheating).
The high court gave Khera a week’s time to file an application before the court concerned and granted him relief with certain conditions.
“Without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, this court is of the view that the petitioner has made out a case for the grant of limited transit anticipatory bail, as his apprehension of arrest appears to be reasonable and supported by material on record,” the high court had said in its order.
The conditions were that the petitioner shall be released on bail in the event of arrest on his executing a personal bond for Rs one lakh with two sureties for the like sum each, cooperate with the investigation and make himself available for interrogation as and when required by the Investigating Officer and that he shall not leave the country without prior permission of the competent Court.
Khera, who approached the high court on April 7, showed his residential address in Hyderabad.
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