NEW DELHI: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday vowed to take the “stringest action” against Congress leader Pawan Khera over his allegations. He has dismissed the claims as digitally manipulated “fake AI campaign” and has expressed confidence that the BJP will win at least 100 seats in the upcoming assembly elections.“…I will take stringest action against Congress leader Pawan Khera, just wait for some days. We will win at least 100 seats in the elections” Sarma told reporters.The controversy erupted after Khera alleged at a Delhi press conference that Sarma’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, holds three passports — a UAE Golden Card, an Antigua and Barbuda passport, and an Egyptian passport. Khera also claimed that the family has business interests worth Rs 52,000 crore in the United States and presented property documents linking Sarma’s family to apartments in Dubai.Sarma dismissed the allegations as politically motivated lies aimed at misleading the people of Assam.
Legal action
The chief minister said both he and his wife will file criminal and civil defamation cases against Khera.“I have complete faith in the judiciary. Once the truth is established in a court of law, Shri Pawan Khera will face the consequences of his actions, and the law will take its due course,” Sarma wrote on X.He also claimed that property documents used to link his family to apartments in Dubai were stolen from the document-sharing platform Scribd, identifying the real owners as “Md. Ahmad and Fatima Sulaiman.”
Himanta’s wife hits back
Riniki Bhuyan Sharma rejected all allegations, stating on X: “Neither I, nor my children, nor my husband have any business interests or assets in Dubai or anywhere outside India.”She also took a swipe at Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi, who had called for further investigation into the matter. Gogoi had termed the Chief Minister an “embarrassment” who “will have to answer the questions and pay for his crime.”Responding to Gogoi, Sharma questioned whether his wife “has or has ever had a bank account in Pakistan” and challenged him to make those details public.
Sarma flags document discrepancies
Sarma has pointed multiple discrepancies in the alleged documents, including surname mismatches, a publicly available photograph instead of a biometric capture, and spelling errors such as “Egyptiann.”He has also flagged the documents connecting him to Dubai apartments and has called the entirety of allegations #CongFakeAICampaignThe escalating exchange comes just days before polling in Assam, scheduled for April 9 across 126 constituencies, with counting set for May 4.
