'What did Gaurav do in Pakistan?' CM Himanta Biswa calls Gogoi 'national threat'; Assam hands over SIT report to home ministry

GUWAHATI: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma raised Sunday the political temperature before assembly elections in Assam, accusing Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi of posing a "national threat" over his 2013 Pakistan visit and pushing for a central probe into alleged professional ties of his wife with the neighbouring nation.

Assam cabinet cleared Saturday the transfer of a voluminous SIT report to the Union home ministry, seeking investigation by central agencies into an alleged global conspiracy against India involving Pakistani national Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, Gaurav, and his British wife Elizabeth Colebourn Gogoi. The police SIT, set up in Feb last year, submitted its findings on Sept 10.


Sarma said Gaurav, deputy leader of opposition in Lok Sabha and Assam Congress chief, is "at his most vulnerable point" and must explain his "digital silence" during the Dec 2013 Pakistan visit for 10 days, the mid-trip expansion of his visa from Lahore to include Islamabad and Karachi, and who facilitated it. "Until he answers them, suspicion will remain," Sarma said, alleging Gaurav could be susceptible to blackmail.

A substantial part of the allegations focused on Gaurav's wife. Sarma demanded immediate revocation of Elizabeth's Indian visa, alleging her work intersected with international advocacy groups critical of India on Kashmir and citizenship laws.

Sarma also questioned Gaurav’s visit to the Pakistan high commission with a youth delegation and raised issues about his family’s British citizenship, including the surrender of his son’s Indian passport in 2022.

Gaurav dismissed the allegations as political theatre. He said the accusations were “mindless and bogus,” insisting the CM was misleading the public and turning governance into spectacle.

Posting on X, he called the CM’s presser “the most flop press conference of the century”, worse than “C-grade cinema”. “He seems to think the people of Assam lack intelligence. They will decide decisively in the coming elections,” Gaurav said.

According to Sarma, Gaurav arrived in Lahore on Dec 15, 2013, and within a day Pakistan’s interior ministry issued a letter expanding his visa to Islamabad and Karachi. “Why was he taken from Lahore to Islamabad and Karachi? What did he do for 10 days?” Sarma asked, alleging Gaurav may have undergone “some kind of training”, a claim he said warrants central scrutiny.

Sarma alleged that after returning from Pakistan, Gaurav underwent a “complete change”, linking the visit to questions Gaurav raised in Parliament on defence preparedness, air squadrons, submarines, uranium reserves and the western front. “Had he not been blackmailed, would he have asked such sensitive questions?” Sarma said.

Sarma said Assam police did not question Gaurav out of deference to his status as an MP and left the matter to the Centre. He ruled out immediate arrest, saying it would invite allegations of political vendetta before elections.

Citing SIT findings, Sarma alleged Elizabeth worked with NGO Lead Pakistan, headed by Sheikh, from March 2011 to March 2012 and continued to receive payments routed from Pakistan. He alleged she remained under “managerial control” from Pakistan.

Sarma alleged that funds originating in Pakistan were channelled to pay her salary in violation of FCRA norms, calling it impossible without high-level facilitation. He claimed Elizabeth authored a 45-page confidential report in 2014 sent to Pakistan, drawing on intelligence assessments, and recommended a “low-risk, low-visibility” strategy bypassing the Centre by engaging state govts.