- A team from Assam and Delhi Police arrived at Congress leader Pawan Khera's home
- Khera accused Assam Chief Minister's wife of holding three passports and US business worth Rs 52,000 crore
- Himanta Sarma denied the allegations and threatened legal action against Khera
A team from Assam Police, along with their Delhi counterparts, arrived Tuesday morning at Congress leader Pawan Khera's Nizamuddin East home in the national capital, days after he alleged that Chief Minister Himanta Sarma's wife owns three passports.
Pawan Khera, the chief of Congress' Media and Publicity Department, was not at home when the Assam cops arrived. The Congress leader is in Hyderabad, party sources told NDTV.
"He ran away from Guwahati yesterday. I have come to know through the media that the police have gone to his residence in Delhi, but he has run away to Hyderabad. The law will take its own course," Chief Minister Himanta Sarma told news agency ANI.
The cops left the Congress leader's home a little after 1 pm.
"A case has been registered at Crime Branch Police Station in Guwahati and we wanted Pawan Khera in connection with the case. We came in search of him, but he was not found and his house was searched. We found some incriminating material, which cannot be disclosed at this stage. Electronic devices have been seized. His whereabouts are currently unknown, but he will be traced," Debojit Nath, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) of Assam Police, said after the search operations.
Congress leader and general secretary in charge communications Jairam Ramesh called it a "witch hunt".
"The deployment of a full army of police officials to arrest my colleague Pawan Khera for asking basic questions in the public interest proves that the Assam Chief Minister is disturbed, desperate, and rattled," Ramesh said.
The cops visited after Khera had in a press conference on Sunday alleged that Himanta Sarma's wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, owns three passports and that the family has business interests worth Rs 52,000 crore in the United States.
The searches followed the FIR filed by Sarma's wife into the matter on Monday.
'Pawan Khera, Pawan peda ban jaayega' (a play on the Congress leader's name, sans any sweetness. The expression is hard to translate but expresses dismissiveness)," Assam Chief Minister Himanta Sarma had threatened soon after, rejecting the allegations against his wife.
The 57-year-old Sarma, who quit the Congress in 2015 and crossed over to the BJP, said he would file a defamation case against the Congress leader.
Since the row broke out, the Chief Minister, who is looking to secure a second term, has targeted the Congress leader, sometimes using words that err on the side of unparliamentary.
The state goes to polls in two days' time, on April 9. The votes will be counted on May 4.
