GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court is on Wednesday scheduled to hear a petition filed by the Assam government against the one-week transit anticipatory bail granted to Congress leader Pawan Khera by the Telangana High Court.
The high court had on April 10 granted bail to Khera, giving him one week’s time to file an application before the court concerned.
“…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 order read.
The Assam government filed its plea in the Supreme Court on Sunday through advocate Shuvodeep Roy.
Addressing a press conference on April 5 when campaigning for the April 9 Assam elections reached a crescendo, Khera had ruffled the BJP’s feathers by claiming that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife possesses passports of three countries, owns luxury properties in Dubai and has investments worth several lakh crore rupees in the United States.
Sarma had dismissed the claims outright, and sniffed a Pakistani angle to it. He claimed that the “fraud and fabricated” documents that the Congress leader had relied on while making the claims was “supplied from a Pakistani social media group.”
He expressed concerns that Pakistan was trying to influence the outcome of Assam polls. His wife had lodged an FIR with the Crime Branch Police Station in Guwahati against Khera and a case was registered.
On April 7, an Assam Police team, accompanied by Delhi Police personnel, went to Khera’s residence in connection with the case but did not find him. The Assam Police had claimed about recovering “incriminating” material after a search at the residence.
Sarma had then claimed that Khera fled to Hyderabad. “But the Assam Police are efficient enough to nab him even from the netherworld,” the Chief Minister stated.
Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita had also dismissed as “fake and fabricated” Khera’s claims. “As the MoS for External Affairs, I want to say that we have come to know through our diplomatic channels and investigation that these are fake and fabricated documents,” he had stated.