The Congress on Saturday expressed solidarity with its leader Pawan Khera and said it will challenge the Gauhati High Court order rejecting his anticipatory bail plea in the Supreme Court.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the party stood firmly with Khera and expressed confidence that “justice will prevail over the politics of threat and intimidation.”
“The entire Indian National Congress stands solidly in solidarity with Pawan Khera, the Chairman of its Media and Publicity Department. The verdict of the Guwahati High Court is in the process of being challenged in the Supreme Court,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
“We are confident that justice will prevail over the politics of threat, intimidation, and harassment,” he added.
The Gauhati High Court on Friday rejected Khera’s anticipatory bail petition in a case linked to his allegations that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife possessed multiple passports and undisclosed foreign properties.
The single-judge bench of Justice Parthiv Jyoti Saikia rejected the plea filed on Monday after Khera was directed by the Supreme Court to first approach the Gauhati High Court.
Following the press conference where the allegations were made, Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sharma filed criminal cases against Khera at the Guwahati Crime Branch Police Station under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The court observed that the matter cannot be treated as “defamation simpliciter”, noting that it involved additional allegations beyond simple defamation.
It also said there were materials for a prima facie case under Section 339 of the BNS, which deals with possession of forged documents or electronic records, and observed that Khera had been avoiding police investigation.
The court further said custodial interrogation was necessary to determine his associates, who collected the documents, and how they were obtained.
Khera had earlier approached the Telangana High Court, being a resident of Hyderabad, which granted him seven-day transit anticipatory bail. However, the Assam Police moved the Supreme Court, which stayed the order and directed him to approach the Gauhati High Court.
(With inputs from PTI)