Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday made a big charge against Elizabeth Kalbourne, wife of Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi. He said that the MP’s wife has “good relations” with the Pakistani army.
Addressing a press conference, Sarma claimed that Kalbourne had traveled between India and Pakistan 19 times and the Pakistani army officials in the neighboring country were with him. The Chief Minister alleged, “He worked in Pakistan and then came to Delhi to work in a non-governmental organization, but he continued to get salary from Pakistan.”
Sarma claimed that Gogoi also “personally, not officially” went to Pakistan and stayed there for 15 days. The Chief Minister said, “His wife had gone with him, but she returned after seven days, while Gogoi stayed there for seven days. He should tell what he did in Pakistan for 15 days.”
Sarma said, “It should be ascertained what he did in Pakistan and whether he helped his army directly or indirectly. Reference to this visit should be established.”
He said, “Questions are being raised about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Pakistan, but he had gone there officially. If Gogoi had gone there as part of the official delegation, we would not raise questions, but he had gone there with personal status and we would like to know who welcomed him in that country.”
The Chief Minister claimed that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the relationship between Pakistani citizen Ali Tauqir Sheikh and his colleagues in India has completed the investigation and “We have evidence that he (Gogoi) went through the Wagah-Atari border.”
“However, we need to complete the statutory provisions to certify data and require time to prove data. We have already started the process and we will complete it by 10 September.”
Sarma claimed that the SIT “went to the required places … but a process of collecting evidence is”.
Sarma claimed that the Congress MP had told during his visit to Israel that his passport had been lost and it had “loss of valuable data”. Sarma said that after returning from Pakistan, Gogoi had taken 90 youths to Pakistani Embassy and many of them later claimed that they were not told earlier that they were being taken there.
He alleged, “This was done with the aim of making the youth radical.”
The Chief Minister claimed that Gogoi is only Indian citizen in his family and has given up Indian citizenship of his two children. He said, “When we find documentary evidence, we will present them before the Prime Minister’s Office and when the matter is handed over to the central agency, there will be more scope for investigation.”
“The Assam government has limited authority over the matter and can investigate only for a certain point,” he said.
Although there was no immediate response from Gogoi, the Congress leader first accused Sarma of dragging his family, wife and children to do politics.
He said, “On the other hand, the Congress is doing politics for people, poor children and unemployed youth of Assam. Children are not getting textbooks in schools. Poor parents are forcing their children to sell smuggling networks due to excessive poverty. The school leaving is very high.”
He also asked what happened to the investigation of the SIT formed to investigate the alleged Pakistani relations of him and his wife and challenged the Chief Minister of Assam to make public the conclusions of the investigation.
Assam Chief Minister is attacking the Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha for alleged relations with his wife’s Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.