Assam Police searches Pawan Khera’s Delhi home after complaint by CM Himanta’s wife

The case against the Congress leader has been registered with the Crime Branch of the Assam Police. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)

The controversy comes just two days before Assam votes for the Assembly elections on April 9.

At the time of the search, Khera was not at home. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “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.”

#WATCH | Sivasagar | On Congress leader Pawan Khera, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma says, “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… pic.twitter.com/sQPVZF5kBo

— ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2026

Riniki Bhuyan Sarma on Monday said photos of her purported passport shared by Khera were AI-generated and edited. “It seems that a mad dog has bitten them, and from the top rung of the Congress to the lowest rung, I believe that they don’t have anything else to do except defaming people, that too with AI-generated and total photoshop. One more thing, which they have done well, is set up a playbook… It is an example set to the entire Assamese society by a very veteran party, which is very shameful. I think they have gone berserk… For the last two years, they have been doing every little thing to defame me, my daughter, my son; we are nowhere related to politics,” she told mediapersons.

A Congress leader considered close to Khera told The Indian Express: “What Khera ji has said should be investigated. Instead, they’ve sent police to conduct raids. He is not in Delhi currently.”

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh posted on X: “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 CM is disturbed, desperate, and rattled. This is not due process but instead a witch hunt, a bully using state machinery to muzzle and silence the voice of the Opposition that is exposing his many black deeds. Those who intimidate are the ones who are afraid and have much to hide.It also proves that the CM is facing imminent defeat.”

The Riniki Bhuyan passport controversy

The Assam CM had been clear he would pursue legal action against Khera. On Monday, before hitting the campaign trail, he had said the claims are “false” and “politically motivated”.

He claimed that while conducting their research, his team performed a reverse Google search on the ID number of the alleged UAE document and found that the original belonged to an Egyptian national, whose image had been shared on a “Pakistani” Facebook group as a lost document.

He claimed that a similar reverse search on the MRZ code on the purported Egyptian document shows that the original document belongs to another woman. He also claimed that the documents contain discrepancies, such as a mismatch in the birth year, and that one of the alleged passports lists the place of birth as “Indian”. The photos, he alleged, have been doctored.

Later on Monday, he said that the Union government has sought clarification from the governments of the three countries, and that all three have indicated that the documents are not genuine.