Khera’s lawyers write to Gauhati HC CJ on his bail plea rejection

Guwahati: Lawyers of Congress leader Pawan Khera on Friday wrote to the Gauhati High Court chief justice seeking his intervention in preventing ‘serious miscarriage of justice’ in Khera’s anticipatory bail plea, which was rejected by a single-judge bench on Friday. They also requested the recall of the rejection and a rehearing of the plea afresh.

Khera’s anticipatory bail in the forgery and criminal case was registered at the crime branch police station of the Guwahati police commissionerate, based on an FIR by CM Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, on the midnight of April 6 — hours after Khera had allegedly accused Riniki of holding multiple passports and having assets in foreign nations.

The letter, signed by Khera’s advocate Reetam Singh, said the pre-arrest bail rejection order on Friday records the name of Riniki, who is the original complainant in the case, at several paragraphs.

“The Advocate General, D Saikia, however, suppressed the material and highly relevant fact that he himself maintains a long-standing debtor-creditor relationship with both Himanta Biswa Sarma and Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, as disclosed in the election affidavit relied upon by him. The affidavit records outstanding loans of Rs 2,00,000 payable by Himanta Biswa Sarma and Rs 1,00,000 payable by Riniki Bhuyan Sarma to the Advocate General, which amounts have remained unchanged since 2016,” the advocate stated in the letter to the chief justice.

Singh said, “The non-disclosure by the Advocate General D Saikia of his direct personal financial interest with the litigants in the outcome of the proceedings, while appearing in his official capacity as advocate general of Assam and relying upon the very document that disclosed the said relationship in his own court arguments, constitutes a grave suppression of material facts. Such conduct raises a serious and reasonable apprehension of bias, compromises the principles of natural justice and fair trial guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, and vitiates the sanctity of the judicial process.”

Saying that in the interest of justice and to uphold the highest standards of judicial propriety and public confidence in the administration of justice, Singh said “it is imperative that the bail rejection order of Khera be recalled and be reheard afresh by an independent bench, with the state being represented by counsel free from any conflict of interest.”

Singh said he had earlier filed a complaint before the chief justice on March 27 detailing the financial transactions between the advocate general and the Sarma family and “the conflict of interest arising therefrom, in violation of rules of the standards of professional conduct and etiquette framed by the Bar Council of India”.
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