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New Delhi: With barely four days left to go for Assam assembly elections, the opposition Congress has mounted one of the biggest attacks on the state chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Himanta Biswa Sarma. 

The Congress has alleged that his wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma holds passports of three countries and that a whopping Rs 52,000 crore in US dollars have been stashed away in a company formed at the US tax-haven Wyoming to start a hotel business in her name in the US.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Sunday (April 5), Congress chief spokesperson Pawan Khera demanded that Sarma be disqualified from contesting the April 9 elections and be “arrested” for not disclosing his wife’s assets.

“Sarma also must be asked, where did the family get such a huge sum of money?” Khera said.

LIVE: Congress party briefing by Shri @Pawankhera at AICC Office, New Delhi. https://t.co/0wyr5kJLsP — Congress (@INCIndia) April 5, 2026

LIVE: Congress party briefing by Shri @Pawankhera at AICC Office, New Delhi. https://t.co/0wyr5kJLsP

— Congress (@INCIndia) April 5, 2026

On a giant screen, Khera displayed copies of the passports allegedly issued to Sarma’s wife by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Antigua and Barbuda. All the three copies claimed by Khera to be her passports showed the validity period till 2027, 2029 and 2031 respectively. Khera asked, “Does she also hold Indian citizenship? Will home minister Amit Shah, who is extremely close to Sarma, institute an investigation on the matter?” Khera said Sarma had gone to town saying that the state Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi’s wife is not an Indian citizen. “I now want to ask him, is your wife an Indian citizen?…How is the wife of a sitting chief minister not an Indian citizen? It is a matter [of] worry.” Khera told reporters, “Sarma keeps spouting communal hatred towards Muslims and yet, his wife holds passports of two Islamic countries…we have shown you documents, and now it is upon Amit Shah to tell us. Are these passports real? How is she holding three passports at the same time…all the passport validity dates are active.” On the screen, Khera also presented a document from May 5, 2025 showing minutes and resolutions of the annual meeting of the members of RINIKIBHUYANSARMA asset collective LLC mentioned to be a “Wyoming limited liability company”.

The said document mentioned a resolution that an amount of “3467890123 USD” was proposed as its budget and “presented to the members” to start a line of hotels in that country by the name of “RINIKIBHUYANHOTELS”. “…the motion was passed by unanimous vote and resolved that the company adopts the RINIKIBHUYANHOTELS for the coming year.” He then highlighted a name mentioned at the bottom of that document as a company member, “HrinikiNandi LLC”,  which is also a signatory to that claimed resolution. “It is nothing but a shell company formed by the Sarma family…H is Himanta, Riniki is his wife, and Nandi is his son Nandil,” Khera said. Khera then opened the official website of Wyoming’s Secretary of State to show that HrinikiNandi LLC does exist in that state. The official record, checked by The Wire on the same website, showed that its Articles of Organisation was filed only this April 3 at 10: 33 a.m. local time. It was filed by one Andrew Pierce, who signed as an authorised individual. Pierce is the CEO of Wyoming LLC Attorney whose services include helping out non-US residents to form LLPs in that State. Khera told reporters, “We asked ourselves, why Wyoming of all places. Then we got to know that the American state doesn’t charge taxes for businesses even to non-US citizens…and it can be done quietly there.” Calling Sarma and his wife “Bunty Aur Babli”, Khera alleged that both the acts of stashing away such a huge sum of money in the United States at a tax-haven, and owning multiple passports “only meant that they are planning to flee the country after losing the elections.” “Sarma must be arrested”. Khera also mounted on the screen a set of property documents allegedly owned by Sarma’s wife in Dubai, and gave out the addresses at the press meet for “verification”. “On weekdays, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar ji keeps sleeping; we are hoping that he is awake on a Sunday and will look into the matter. You may ask, what is wrong about owning a property? I would say, as per the law, Sarma has to disclose his wife’s assets too. Why was it not done?” Khera asked.

In a landmark judgement in 2018, the Supreme Court Court had made it mandatory for candidates contesting elections to declare the sources of income for them, their spouses and dependents in an attempt to bring probity among politicians. In 2022, the apex court had ruled that false declaration of assets of a candidate, his/her spouse, or dependents, constitutes corrupt practice irrespective of the impact of such a false declaration on the election of the candidate.” Reacting to the allegations, Gaurav Gogoi said on X that “holding multiple passports and failure to disclose properties is a grave and criminal offence…” He said, “How much money has been sent from Assam to their bank accounts abroad? More investigation is required. Himanta Biswa Sarma has become an embarrassment for the state of Assam and India. He will have to answer the questions and pay for his crime.” On X, Sarma issued a long statement, calling the press conference a reflection of “deep frustration and panic within the Congress party.” He called the allegations “baseless”, “malicious”, “fabricated”, and “politically motivated”, and said, “My wife and I will be filing both criminal and civil defamation cases within the next 48 hours against Shri Pawan Khera. He will be held fully accountable for his reckless and defamatory statements.

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