GUWAHATI, Jan 10: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said details of state Congress president and Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi’s alleged links with Pakistan would be made public before the end of January.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a government programme at Goreswar, Sarma said documents related to the allegations were currently being prepared. “Our officers are working on it. Before February, in fact before the end of January, everything will be revealed,” the Chief Minister said.
Sarma also targeted Gogoi over the British citizenship of his wife and children, claiming that the people of Assam would not accept such a person in the “bor ghor” (revered place), an apparent reference to the chief minister’s post.
The BJP leadership and Sarma have repeatedly accused Gogoi, the son of former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, alleging that his wife Elizabeth Colburn has links with Pakistan’s spy agency, the ISI. Sarma said the disclosure of documents was delayed due to the death of cultural icon Zubeen Garg in September.
Responding to a question on whether the revelations would impact Gogoi’s prospects in the Assembly elections expected in March–April, Sarma said the issue went beyond electoral politics. “Pakistan is our enemy country. The question is not about contesting elections but whether someone can have links with that country,” he said, also questioning why Gogoi’s children’s citizenship had not been changed.
Later, addressing a press conference after a Cabinet meeting in Guwahati, Sarma said the state government had initially planned to make the information public in September but deferred it following Garg’s death on September 19.
The state government had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the alleged interference of Pakistani national Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, who was claimed to have links with Gogoi’s wife, in India’s internal affairs. The SIT submitted its report to Sarma, who also holds the Home portfolio, on September 10.
Sarma said a clarification under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) from the Union Home Ministry was awaited, but added that the findings would be made public even if the clarification did not arrive. “It is a big conspiracy. What we have is only the beginning,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, Gogoi has strongly denied the allegations, calling them “ridiculous, baseless and nonsense,” and accused Sarma of behaving like an “IT cell troll” without facts.
