Congress leaders Pawan Khera and Gaurav Gogoi have accused Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his wife of holding undisclosed foreign assets and multiple passports, demanding affidavits and an SIT probe.
Published Date – 5 April 2026, 11:55 PM
Guwahati: Congress leaders Pawan Khera and Gaurav Gogoi on Sunday evening asked Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to answer three questions on whether his family has properties and companies abroad.
The questions were asked in a press conference here, hours after Sarma said that he and his wife would file a defamation case against Khera within 48 hours for making “false allegations” that she has multiple passports and holds properties in Dubai, which were not mentioned in his poll affidavit.
Khera had made those accusations in a presser in New Delhi earlier on Sunday, just four days before the state goes to polls on April 9.
Addressing a press conference here in the evening, the Congress leaders posed three questions to the Assam CM: whether his wife or family owns property in Dubai, has companies in Wyoming in the USA, or has placed their assets in shell companies.
Gogoi and Khera demanded that Sarma provide an affidavit to the Election Commission of India regarding his wife’s alleged property in Dubai, the company in Wyoming and assets held in shell companies.
“These details are missing in the affidavit submitted to the ECI, and his nomination is a fit case for disqualification,” he said.
Gogoi said that Sarma has accused him of not divulging his wife’s alleged bank accounts in Pakistan, adding, “I can put my hand on the Bhagwad Gita and say that this is not true, but can he do the same?”
Khera, however, alleged Sarma might not tell the truth even ”on the Gita, as I don’t think he is really religious and we want him to give an affidavit on these properties which he has not mentioned during filing of nomination”.
The party also demanded that the Centre form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the allegations — multiple passports, undisclosed foreign assets, and the source of funds in foreign entities.
The EC also must examine the alleged non-disclosure of foreign assets and take appropriate action, the party said.
Regarding Sarma’s threat to file a defamation case against Khera, the leaders stated that this is nothing new, as he has filed several defamation cases, including one against Gogoi, whenever corruption charges have been levelled against him.
“We want him to go to the court and then we will come with sacks full of documents to prove the truth. We challenge him to go to court today itself; why wait till tomorrow?” he added.
Giving a list of defamation cases filed by Sarma, the state Congress president claimed that whenever any allegation is brought against him, he files a defamation case and the people now know that this is his way of “hiding the truth”.
Gogoi also claimed that the CM is not saying anything about the properties and companies, but has been threatening to go to court on the allegations that his wife Riniki Bhuyan Sharma has three passports.
However, both Sarma and his spouse rejected the accusations.
Gogoi asserted that these facts came to light from documents submitted while applying for a specialised visa for Dubai.
The CM or the BJP is yet to respond to the new charge.
Khera had earlier alleged at a press conference in New Delhi that Sarma’s wife holds three passports of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Antigua-Barbuda and Egypt, which expire on March 2027, August 2031 and February 2029, respectively.
Asked why these allegations were made barely four days before the assembly elections, the AICC spokesperson said here, “We had information before, but the facts needed to be checked….as much as we can verify being in the opposition”.
He said that these are just the “tip of the iceberg and there is more to come.”
Gogoi said that these are cases that should be investigated by the CBI, Income Tax department and the ED, but the Centre will not let them do it.
“We cannot change the loyalty of the law-enforcing agencies, but we can change the government. We will go to the people’s court, and the people will make the change on April 9”, he said.
Former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, who was also present at the press conference, said, ”The PM had commented ‘Na khaunga aur na khane doonga’ (his government will not be corrupt and will not allow others to be so). Now we have to see what steps is taken by him.”
Earlier, Sarma also claimed that there were ‘serious discrepancies’ in the documents shared by Khera in Delhi, which suggests that it was a “crude and poorly executed attempt at digital manipulation”.
The chief minister, listing the anomalies in the documents circulated by Khera, said in a post on X: “Busting Congress’ propaganda—serious discrepancies exposed. The documents being circulated show multiple glaring inconsistencies, suggesting a crude and poorly executed attempt at digital manipulation”.
He said the Congress used ‘Sarma’ as his wife’s surname instead of the official ‘Sharma’.
“The photograph appears to be a publicly available image, not a standard biometric capture,” the CM said.
Sarma asserted that he was confident that Khera’s ”campaign of falsehood is nearing its end. Eventually, Mr Khera will go to Jail”.
