'If Gaurav Gogoi is arrested now, I'll be accused of doing politics before Assam polls': Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati:

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday reiterated his claims about Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi's alleged links with Pakistan, as the state cabinet referred the case to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). However, the 57-year-old said his government will unlikely arrest the Congress leader because if such a 'harsh step' is taken, then he will be accused of 'doing politics' before the upcoming assembly elections in the state.

Speaking at a press conference in Guwahati, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said his government has not even interrogated Gogoi and has left the matter to the central government, showing respect to his position. It must be mentioned here that Gogoi is the Deputy Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha. Recommending a central probe, he alleged that Gogoi and his British wife Elizabeth have 'deeper' links with Pakistan agent Ali Tauqeer Sheikh.

Sarma said Sheikh had visited India 13 times from 2010 to 2013 when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power at the Centre. Sheikh even deleted all his X (twitter) posts "to protect someone" after the Assam government initiated a probe, the chief minister claimed, alleging that Elizabeth was given a job by a Pakistani firm which transferred her to India.

"All visits took place when Dr Manmohan Singh was the PM of India and Elizabeth and Gaurav were closely connected to the power structure of India... All visas were issued during Congress rule. Once PM Modi came to power, he stopped visiting India... He also brought high-level Pakistani officials along with him during the visits to India," Sarma said.

According to the Sarma, Elizabeth gathered various information regarding India and used to share them with Sheikh. Elizabeth even collected information from Intelligence Bureau (IB) sources about climate action after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, he claimed, alleging that Gogoi didn't even mention about his wife Pakistani bank account in his election affidavit.

Elizabeth had travelled to Islamabad six times while working for an Indian firm. After she joined another non-governmental organisation (NGO), she visited Pakistan again three times, the Assam chief minister alleged. He said Elizabeth would travel to Pakistan by flights and would only use the Attari border in Punjab to "keep it low key".

"On August 5, 2014 sent a report to him. The report is very important. She got information from IB, in reference to a secret IB report. That we have to adopt a new strategy - low risk, low visibility, that after PM Modi came to power, the climate action group will not have a field day, so we have to change the strategy. She said that now we have to change strategy, we have to bypass Central Govt for our activity in India," Sarma said.

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